NEW DELHI, Nov 16 - The Railway Ministry has announced that for development of railway network in the northeastern states, 20 major projects consisting of 13 new lines, two gauge conversion works and five track doubling works, having an aggregate length of 2,624 km and at a cost of Rs 52,030 crore, have been taken up.
An expenditure of Rs 21,336 crore has been incurred on these projects up to March, 2016. An outlay of Rs 5,040 crore has been provided for the financial year 2016-17 for these projects and residual liabilities of some completed projects, said Minister of State for Railways Rajen Gohain in a Lok Sabha reply.
Completion of these projects depends on several factors such as availability of funds, land acquisition, forestry and wildlife clearance, shifting of services, construction of road overbridges and road underbridges, etc. As many of these factors are not within the control of the Railways, it is not feasible to fix timelines for all the projects, said Gohain.
The minister disclosed that currently six new line projects are facing major hurdles in the Northeast on account of various clearances, land acquisition, besides law and order issues. These are Sivok-Rangpo, Byrnihat-Shillong, Dimapur-Kohima, Agartala-Akhaura, New Moynaguri-Jogighopa and Teteliya-Byrnihat.
The Railways has meanwhile taken various measures to expedite completion of the projects with substantial increase in allocation of funds, deputing central armed forces in Lumding-Silchar project for security, delegation of powers at field level, nomination of nodal officers for improved coordination with the state governments, etc.
