Projects
National Rail Vikas Yojana
National Rail Vikas Yojana, announced on 15th August, 2002, at an estimated cost of
Rs.15,000 crore, has been formally launched on 26th December, 2002 by the Honble Prime
Minister. A company named "Rail Vikas Nigam Limited" has been incorporated under
the Companies Act for implementation of these projects including raising of resources.
Strengthening of the Golden Quadrilateral and its diagonals through identified
sub-projects costing about Rs.8,000 crore will form the major part of this yojana. A part
loan of US$ 313.6 million has been approved by ADB. It will be utilized, mainly, for
execution of projects covered under the initiative of "strengthening of Golden
Quadrilateral". A dialogue with World Bank has been initiated to mobilize funds for
"mega bridges" and other NRVY projects.
Projects under the initiative "port connectivity" have been identified and
resource mobilization for the same is proposed to be organized through various
public-private partnership initiatives and budgetary support.
Sir, as committed in my last budget speech, work has already commenced on three mega
bridges i.e., Bogibeel bridge over river Brahmaputra, two bridges over river Ganga, one at
Patna and the other at Munger. I am happy to inform the House that the requisite
clearances for the mega bridge over river Kosi have been obtained and the work has been
included in the budget.
National
And Strategic Projects
Honble Prime Minister, during his visit to Srinagar had announced that the first train
will roll into Kashmir Valley by 15th August 2007. I express my gratitude to the Hon'ble
Finance Minister, who has provided Rs. 500 cr for this National project in 2003-04,
considering its importance. The work on Udhampur-Katra and Quazigund-Baramulla sections is
already in progress.
The stretch between Katra-Quazigund is very difficult requiring large scale tunneling and
bridging works for which detailed surveys on ground need to be carried out. Considering
the arduous nature of work, construction on this section has been entrusted to two
technically sound organizations, viz., IRCON and Konkan Railway Corporation Limited while
detailed survey has been entrusted to RITES.
I am happy to inform that long pending project of Jammu-Udhampur is progressing at a
satisfactory pace and is targeted for completion by March 2004. Further, rail link upto
Katra is likely to be completed during 2004-2005.
The two strategic projects, namely, gauge conversion from Luni to Munabao and new line
between Kolayat and Phalodi are progressing satisfactorily and gauge conversion up to
Samdari has already been completed.
Over 1300 km of BG lines are likely to be added during the current year. Further, a target
of addition of nearly 1340 kms of BG lines has been set for 2003-2004.
New Lines
Sir, I am happy to state that Kumarghat-Manu of Kumarghat-Agartala new line has already
been completed and commissioned on 27.12.2002 for passenger services. The restoration of
Fatuha-Islampur has also been completed.
It is hoped to complete restoration of Duraundha-Maharajganj and new lines between
Katra-Faizabad and Joruli-Keonjhar during the year. Further, the work of
Daulatpur-Malikpur and Bajkul-Nachenda are also likely to be completed by March 2003. The
balance targeted portion of these lines i.e. from Malikpur to Balurghat and Nachenda to
Kanthi are expected to be completed by June 2003.
In 2003-2004, Railways propose to complete 225 km of new lines including following
sections: Panvel-Karjat Sasaram-Nokha of Ara-Sasaram Kakdweep-Namkhana of
Lakshmikantapur-Namkhana Bajalta-Udhampur of Jammu-Udhampur Una-Churaru Takrala of
Nangaldam-Talwara Kakinada-Kotipalli restoration Mahendralalnagar-Amta of Howrah-Amta
Hassan-Sharavanabelagola of Hassan-Bangalore Tilaiya-Jagdishpur of Rajgir-Tilaiya.
Gauge
Conversion
During the year, the gauge conversion of Vadalur-Vriddhachalam, Dharmabad-Nizamabad and
Jankampet-Bodhan has already been completed. I am happy to state that against the original
target of 791 km of gauge conversion set for the current year, nearly 900 km of gauge
conversion is likely to be achieved.
This includes Latur-Latur Road new line portion of Miraj-Latur, Mangalore-Kabakaputtur,
Virudunagar-Rajapalaiyam, Katpadi-Pakala-Tirupati, Surendernagar-Pipavav, Rajkot-Junagarh
and Samdari-Jasai where the works of mega block are already in progress.
During the year 2003-2004, a target of over 775 km of gauge conversion has been proposed
which include the following sections: New Jalpaiguri / Siliguri-Samuktala of New
Jalpaiguri-New Bongaigaon Bandikui-Bharatpur of Bandikui -Agra Jasai-Munabao of
Luni-Munabao Kabakaputtur-Subrahmanya Road of Hassan-Mangalore Villupuram-Pondicherry
Rajapalaiyam-Tenkasi of Quilon-Tiruchendur and Virudunagar-Tenkasi Vadalur-Cuddalore of
Salem-Cuddalore Thanjavur-Kumbakonam of Thanjavur-Villupuram Gondia-Balaghat of
Jabalpur-Gondia Junagarh-Veraval with extension to Somnath of Rajkot-Veraval
Dhola-Bhavnagar
Further, I am happy to announce that the works of Bhind-Etawah new line as part of
Guna-Etawah and Mansi-Saharsa gauge conversion are in good progress and likely to be
completed during the year 2004.
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