Cabinet clears eight railway multitracking projects worth ₹20,804 crore
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Also carried by Hindustan Times. Full storyline
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved the projects in two sets, one covering eastern and central states and the other covering southern states. The first set comprised three projects worth ₹10,783 crore across West Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, adding about 656 km and covering 14 districts. These three projects were Katni-Pendra Road 4th Line, Kharagpur-Jharsuguda (Bagdehi) 4th Line and Bilaspur (Uslapur)-Pendra Road 3rd Line. They are expected to improve connectivity for around 4,790 villages with a population of about 5.6 million and to facilitate additional freight traffic of 27 million tonnes per annum. The three projects were estimated to reduce oil imports by about 12 crore litres and lower carbon dioxide emissions by about 62 crore kg.
The second set comprised five projects worth ₹10,021 crore across Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana, adding about 540 km and covering 17 districts. These five projects included Salem-Karur-Dindigul Doubling of 159 km, Hosur-Omalur Doubling of 147 km, Arakkonam-Renigunta 3rd and 4th Line of 77 km, Whitefield-Bangarapet 3rd and 4th Line of 47 km, and the fifth project in the set. They are expected to improve connectivity for about 2,121 villages with a population of around 5.2 million and to generate additional freight traffic of 47 million tonnes per annum. The five southern projects were estimated to reduce oil imports by about 80 million litres and cut carbon dioxide emissions by about 420 million kg, while the three eastern and central projects were estimated to reduce oil imports by about 120 million litres and cut emissions by about 620 million kg.
Taken together, the projects were described as equivalent to planting about 2.48 crore trees.
Reported in coverage, but we could not match these to a source document. They are not part of the story above.
- The Arakkonam-Renigunta section has existing line capacity utilisation of about 120 per cent.
- The Whitefield-Bangarapet section has capacity utilisation of 105 per cent.