As many as 452 railway projects across Indian Railways of total length of 49,323 km and costing approx. Rs 7.33 lakh crore are in different stages of planning/sanction/execution as on April 1, 2022. These include 183 New Line, 42 Gauge Conversion and 227 Doubling works, Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced on Wednesday.
Of the total length, projects of 11,518 km length have been commissioned and an expenditure of about Rs 2.35 lakh crore has been incurred up to March 2022, he informed the Parliament in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha.
He further added that the Railway has reviewed all the projects based on last mile connectivity, missing links, traffic potential on the project, capacity enhancement, availability of land, forest/wild-life clearance etc. and the projects have been prioritised based on the review.
At present, the focus of the Railways is on completion of capacity enhancement projects, last mile connectivity projects, National Projects and Gauge Conversion Projects etc.
Steps taken by the Indian Railways for effective and speedy implementation of the projects:
(i) setting up of Gati Shakti units
(ii) prioritisation of projects
(iii) substantial increase in allocation of funds on priority projects
(iv) delegation of powers at field level
(v) close monitoring of progress of project at various levels, and
(vi) regular follow up with State Governments and concerned authorities for expeditious land acquisition, forestry and Wildlife clearances and for resolving other issues pertaining to projects.
This has led to substantial increase in rate of commissioning since 2014.
Fund allocation since 2014
Since 2014, there has been substantial increase in fund allocation for New Line, Gauge Conversion and Doubling Projects and commensurate commissioning of Projects in Indian Railways. The average annual budget allocation for these works during 2014-19 increased to Rs 26,026 crore per year from Rs 11,527 crore per year during 2009-14, a 126 per cent increase.
There has been a 246 per cent jump in the annual budget allocation to Rs 39,836 crore in FY20 than what was during FY14). The average budget allocation during FY21 was Rs 43,626 crore in Financial Year 2020-21 (278 per cent more than the average annual budget allocation during 2009-14) and Rs 56,716 crore for FY22 (392 per cent jump).
For FY23, highest-ever budget outlay of Rs 67,001 crore has been provided for these works, which is 481 per cent more than average annual budget outlay of 2009-14, the union minister highlighted.
Suggesting that the completion of Railway project(s) depends on factors like quick land acquisition by State Government, forest clearance by officials of forest department, deposition of cost share by State Government in cost sharing projects, priority of projects, among others, Vaishnaw said every effort is being made to execute the project(s) expeditiously.
Indian Railways net zero target
Moreover, the Indian Railways has envisioned to achieve net zero carbon emission by 2030. The national transporter has undertook the following measures in this regard:
– 100% Electrification of Broad Gauge (BG) Railway network.
– About 142 MW of solar plants (both on Rooftops and on its vacant land) and about 103 MW of Wind power plants have been commissioned (till 31.10.2022).
– Use of Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) based 3-phase propulsion system with regenerative braking in locomotives, Electrical Multiple Unit (EMU) trains, Mainline Electric Multiple Unit (MEMU) trains, Kolkata Metro rakes and Electric train sets.
– Conversion of End on Generation (EOG) trains into Head on Generation (HOG) trains to reduce noise, air pollution and diesel consumption.
– Provision of LED lighting in all Railway installations including stations, service buildings, residential quarters and coaches for reduction in electricity consumption.
– Afforestation of railway land to increase carbon sink.
– Green Certifications of various industrial units, railway stations and other railway establishments have been done.
– Construction of Eastern and Western Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFCs).
– Installation of waste to energy plants.
In addition, the railways has decided to progressively procure renewable energy to reduce energy consumption through conventional sources. However, there is no proposal to induct solar train in the Railway fleet as of now as the system works during the day time and generate battery backup of approximately 4 to 5 hours.
System does not work properly during fog/rain and winter season and battery backup goes down to 2 to 3 hours depending upon weather conditions. Therefore, the system has not been pursued further, the minister informed.
