Vinod Bhat
Railway projects are surveyed/ sanctioned/executed Zonal Railway wise and not State-wise as the Railway projects may span across State boundaries. Railway projects are sanctioned on the basis of remunerativeness, traffic projections, last mile connectivity, missing links and alternate routes, augmentation of congested/saturated lines, demands raised by State Governments, Central Ministries, Members of Parliament, other public representatives, Railway’s own operational requirement, socio-economic considerations etc. depending upon throwforward of ongoing projects and overall availability of funds. As on 01.04.2024, across Indian Railways, 488 Railway infrastructure projects (187 New Line, 40 Gauge Conversion and 261 Doubling) of total length 44,488 Km, costing approx. `7.44 lakh crore are in planning/approval/construction stage, out of which, 12,045 Km length has been commissioned and an expenditure of approx. `2.92 lakh crore has been incurred upto March, 2024. The summary is as under: –
| Category | No of Projects | Total LengthNL/GC/DL(in Km) | Length Commissioned till Mar’24 (in Km) | Total Exp upto Mar’24(` in Cr) |
| New Lines | 187 | 20199 | 2855 | 160022 |
| Gauge Conversion | 40 | 4719 | 2972 | 18706 |
| Doubling / Multitracking | 261 | 19570 | 6218 | 113742 |
| Total | 488 | 44,488 | 12,045 | 2,92,470 |
Zone-wise/year-wise details of all Railway projects including cost, expenditure and outlay are made available in public domain on Indian Railway’s website.
The details of commissioning / laying of new track across Indian Railways is given below: –
| Period | New Track Commissioned | Average Commissioning of new tracks |
| 2009-14 | 7,599 Km | 4.2 Km/day |
| 2014-24 | 31,180 Km | 8.54 Km/day (more than 2 times) |
Railway infrastructural Projects in the State of Assam and Northeast are covered by Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) Zone of Indian Railways. Zonal Railway wise details of Railway projects including cost, expenditure and outlay are made available in public domain on Indian Railway’s website.
As on 01.04.2024, 18 projects (13 New Lines and 5 Doubling), of a total length of 1,368 km, costing `74,972 crore, falling fully/partly in Assam and NE Region, are in planning/approval/construction stage, out of which 313 km length has been commissioned and an expenditure of `40,549 crore has been incurred upto March 2024. The summary is as under: –
| Category | No of Projects | Total LengthNL/GC/DL(in Km) | Length Commissioned till Mar’24 (in Km) | Total Exp upto Mar’24(` in Cr) |
| New Lines | 13 | 896 | 81 | 34616 |
| Doubling / Multitracking | 5 | 472 | 232 | 5933 |
| Total | 18 | 1368 | 313 | 40549 |
Budget allocation for Infrastructure projects and safety works, falling fully/ partly in Assam and North east region is as under:
| Period | Outlay |
| 2009-14 | `2122 crore/year |
| 2024-25 | `10376 crore (More than 4 times) |
The details of commissioning / laying of new track falling fully/partly in Assam and North east region during 2009-14 and 2014-24 is as under: –
| Period | New Track Commissioned | Average Commissioning of new tracks |
| 2009-14 | 333 Km | 66.6 Km/year |
| 2014-24 | 1728 Km | 172.8 Km/year (More than 2 times) |
In last 3 years (2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24 and current Financial Year i.e. 2024-25), 933 No. Surveys (299 New line, 14 Gauge Conversion and 620 Doubling) of total length 65,488 km have been sanctioned across Indian Railways, out of which 21 surveys (17 New line & 04 Doubling) of total length 2,499 km fall fully/partly in the North East Region including the State of Assam.
As the Railway network straddles across State boundaries, trains are introduced, as per network requirement, across such boundaries. However, Indian Railways (IR), makes consistent efforts to cater to the needs of travelling passengers by introducing new trains, extending and increasing the frequencies of existing trains and accordingly to cater to the needs of passengers of State of Assam, IR, on originating/terminating basis have introduced 24 new services, extended 20 services and increased the frequencies of 14 services during the period 2019-20 to 2024-25 (February, 2025).
This information was given by the Union Minister of Railways, Information & Broadcasting and Electronics & Information Technology Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.
