Member Engineering Railway Board Shri V.K.Gupta presented the following  initiatives and action plan of Civil Engineering Directorate of Ministry of Railways at a press conference here today:

Network Growth Since Independence:

It is often said that Indian Railways has added only about 12000 Km since independence.independence i.e. from 53596 Km at the time of independence to 65808 Km in 2014. While it is true that Route Kilometers have not increased significantly since independence,  but Railways have carried out a large number of capacity enhancement projects like Gauge Conversion and Doubling. As a result, the total track Kilometer, including Double/multiple lines & yards, has increased as indicated below:

TOTAL TRACK  KILOMETRE
	1951	1991	2014
BROAD GAUGE	42,013	72,174	1,07,513*
METRE GAUGE	29,536	32,122	6,688
NARROW GAUGE	6,075	4,562	2,564
TOTAL	77,624	1,08,858	1,16,765

 The above table shows that Indian Railways have increased its Broad Gauge network effectively to more than 2.5 times since independence.

Presently, India has Rail Network Density of 2 Km per 100 Sq. Km of area as compared to China’s 1 Km per 100 Sq.Km. In population terms, India’s Rail Network Density is 5.44 Km per lakh population as compared to China’s 6.89 Km per lakh population.

Achievements in Railways in 2014-15

o       Railways focus is on completion and commissioning of those projects where substantial progress has been achieved and which have been held up for want of some clearances or small inputs to reap the fruits of investment.

o       In 2014-15, Railways commissioned 1983 Km of Broad Gauge network expansion projects including 380 Km New Lines, 880 Km Gauge Conversion and 723 Km Doubling.

Major Sections commissioned in 2014-15 include:

 

o        Udhampur-Katra completed – Mata Vaishno Devi Shine on Railway map.

o       Meghalaya on Railway Network – Commissioning of Dudhnoi-Mendipathar new line.

o       Commissioning of Lumding – Silchar section, bringing Barak Valley on Broad Gauge Network : Very important for supply of foodgrains,     POL, Fertilizers etc, to Tripura, Manipur and Mizoram.

o       Entire North Bank of Brahmaputra on Broad Gauge – Rangia-Murkongselek project commissioned.

o       Koderma – Hazaribagh New Line completed bringing Naxal affected Hazaribagh district of Jharkhand on Railway map.

o       Gorakhpur-Gonda loop gauge conversion completed.

o       Guna-Gwalior-Etawah Project completed, with the commissioning of Bhind – Etawah section for goods traffic.

o       Kanpur-Kasganj-Mathura & Kasganj-Bareilly gauge conversion completed.

o       Both Ganga Bridges viz Patna & Munger completed – Expected to be commissioned in next 3 months for Rail traffic.

o       Fatehabad- Indore Gauge Conversion: completing Ratlam – Fatehabad – Indore Broad Gauge Link.

o       Doubling of Ganga Bridge at Garh Mukteshwar (Length – 3 Km) – Span of Bridge – 11x200 feet.

Targets for 2015-16:

o       IR have kept a target of commissioning 2500 Km BG track for 2015-16, including 500 Km New Lines, 800 Km Gauge Conversion and 1200 Km Doubling.

o       Agartala, the Capital of Tripura will come on Broad Gauge, with commissioning of Badarpur-Kumarghat-Agartala Gauge Conversion.

o       The States of  Manipur and Mizoram will also be on BG network by March, 2016 with the commissioning of Silchar-Jiribam and Kathakal-Bhairabi Gauge Conversion.

o       Agra – Etawah and Etawah – Mainpuri new lines are planned to be commissioned in this year.

o       Commissioning of Tikamgarh – Khajuraho new line section will usher the Bundelkhand region into a new era of prosperity and economic development.

o       Capacity enhancement on many important/congested routes has been planned by commissioning Doubling/ 3^rd Line substantially on the following routes:

§         Udhna-Jalgaon

§         Viramgam – Surendranagar

§         Viramgam – Samakhyali

§         Jakhal-Mansa-Bathinda

§         Bhopal – Bina 3^rd Line

§         Utretia – Jafrabad

§         Lohta – Bhadohi – Janghai

§         Raipur – Titlagarh

§         Villupuram – Dindigul

o       In the first two months of current financial year, about 175 Km network expansion has been done by commissioning of New Lines, Gauge Conversion and Doublings.

Project Scenario and Outlay:

o       Presently, there are 429 ongoing projects of network expansion needing about Rs 3.45 lakh crore to complete them. Out of these, 82 have been included in the Budget 2015-16 for capacity enhancement of Indian Railways.

o       An outlay of Rs 36000 crore has been provided for these projects in the current financial year.

o       For funding of the projects, an MoU has already been signed with LIC to raise a loan of Rs 1.5 lakh crore.

o       Indian Railways focus is on capacity enhancement works like doubling and it is planned to complete about 11000 Km of Doubling/ 3^rd line/ 4^th line works over next 5 years. In addition, about 2100 Km New Lines and 4000 Km Gauge Conversion is also planned to be completed in next 5 years.

 

Passenger amenities:

o       With a view to improve the passenger amenities, budget allotment under plan head 'Passenger Amenities' has been substantially increased during 2015-16 and Rs. 1748 crores have been allotted against Rs. 1048 crores last year. Out of 1052 stations  identified for development under 'Adarsh Station Scheme' started in 2009, development of 946 stations have been completed upto March'15 and remaining 106 stations are targetted during current year. Additional toilets are planned at 650 stations during current year for which action plan has been made and work started. Comprehensive guidelines have  been issued for provision / augmentation/improvement of various passenger amenities at stations through NGOs,trusts, charitable institutions,corporates,individuals etc.  These guidelines have also been sent to Indian embassy/high commission in USA, Canada, UK & Australia for publicity among indian diaspora there.   Seven stations ( Anand Vihar, Bijwasan, Chandigarh,Habibganj, Shivajinagar, Surat & Gandhinagar) have been taken up for redevelopment to international standards. 

o       Procedure for granting permission for track crossings has been streamlined and morethan 4600 cases have been finalised sinceJuly'14. Now application for this can be submitted online.

ROB/RUB/Level-Xings:

o       Indian Railways have 10,440 unmanned level crossings. Out of which, 7,414 are on Broad Gauge and Railways have already sanctioned the works of elimination of almost all unmanned level crossings on Broad Gauge. In the last five years (2010-15), 5,905 unmanned level crossings have been eliminated by various means. In 2014-15, 1148 unmanned level crossings have been eliminated.

o       Indian Railways have sanctioned the works for construction of 1,399 Road Over Bridges (ROBs) and 5,554 Road Under Bridges (RUBs)/Subways at a total cost of Rs. 54,844 crores having Railway's share as Rs. 30,646 crores. Ministry of Railways have already approached Ministry of Finance for addition allotment of funds to carry out these works. In the last five years (2010-15), 1,114 ROBs and 3,513 RUBs/Subways have been constructed.

Track:

o       During 2014-15 , 2424 km track Renewals were completed against target of 2200 km. For 2015-16 , 2500 km track renewal target has been kept for which provision of Rs 6035 crores has been made.

o       Track is continuously subjected to traffic without any rest. It is being maintained  in fit condition by planning out small duration slots in between the running traffic unlikely other countries where traffic is suspended for fixed duration for maintenance either during day or night. 

o       By improvising welding process, rail and weld fractures have come down by 19% during 2014-15 in comparison to year 2013-14

o       Trackman do Summer Patrolling, Monsoon Patrolling & winter Patrolling in addition to their normal track maintenance work. Trackman have to carry tools weighing 20-25 kg. Efforts are being done to reduce the weight of their tools by half.

Instrumentation:

o       Induction and use of IT Systems, web based applications and telemetry is being extensively being done to enhance safety and management of track, bridges and various other aspects of IR.

o       Track Maintenance and Management (IR-TMS) has been put on web based platform. Automatic alert generation as SMS & Email for any urgent necessity. Sensors are being placed in field for Rail temperature monitoring and real time alert raisingfor any safety need. Progress and management of about 800 track maintenance machines is done on IT based system.

o       Bridge Management System is being developed and likely to be completed by 2016. Various inspections and conditions monitoring of bridgeson IT based e-Platform. Sensors are being placed on important bridges for water level monitoring, vibration monitoring, etc. Real time alert messages have been started and are being extended pan-India.

o       Land bank database has been created in Land Management System (IR-LAMS). This will help in better utilisation, encroachment prevention etc.Mapping of all railway assets being done on GIS Platform with satellite imagery. This will also be linked with various other management applications.

o       Clearances and approval for construction of Road Over Bridges/Road Under Bridges, Private Siding, Cable/Pipeline crossings, etc. has been made online for expeditious approval and execution.

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