Vision 2024: Indian Railway focuses to complete 513 infra projects by 2024

Development of Infrastructure Projects by 2024

Achieving 2024 MT of Loading by 2024

Indian Railway network comprising of 11000 Route Km High Density Network (HDN) and 23000 Route Km Highly Utilised Network (HUN) carries 96% of traffic.

In order to attract more business on IR network it is necessary to improve mobility on HDN and HUN. For the purpose we need to increase Railway network capacity and increase average speed of passenger/goods trains.

• Read Letter by Member Infra conveying importance of Vision 2024

For all these purposes the projects have been identified as Super Critical, Critical and essential. These infrastructure projects have been targeted to be completed before March 2024 with the objective to achieve loading of 2024 MT in 2024, which is Vision 2024.

Targeted Infrastructure projects:

• Doubling of entire single line on HDN and HUN.
• Tripling /Quadrup1ing of 3000 RKM on HDN.
• Upgrading of speed potential of GQ / GD to 130 KMPH by December 21 and entire HDN/HUN before March 2024.
• Upgrading speed potential of New Delhi-Mumbai & New Delhi-Kolkata to 160 KMPH by March 24.
• Commissioning of Eastern and Western Dedicated Freight Corridor by June 2022.
• Identified 105 Traffic Facilities work by March 2024.
• Identified Signaling Works by March 2024.
• 51 Coal connectivity and 10 Port connectivity Projects by March 2024.
• 30 Gauge Conversion Projects of 2322 Km by March 2024.
• 146 Railway Electrification Projects by December 23

The exercise of prioritizing the works has been done. Execution of these identified priority projects need to be planned meticulously by Zonal Railways.

The funds will not be constraint for these projects, provided the Railways give progress in these works as per target. The fund allotment will be as per performance of Railways vis-a-vis their plan for these projects, which will bring paradigm shift in Railways project execution.

Railway Board has the shared the details of the projects with their target dates and likely allocation of funds.

• Download Complete Vision 2024 Document (152 Pages)

Average Annual Budget allocation for Infrastructure and Safety works during 2014-19 has increased to Rs. 26,026 crore per year from Rs. 11,527 crore per year (during 2009-14), which is 126% more than Average Annual Budget allocation of 2009-14. The Budget allocation during 2019-20 has further increased to Rs. 39,836 crore which is around 245% more than Average Annual Budget allocation of 2009-14 and is also the highest ever expenditure in any financial year for Infrastructure and Safety works.

Vision 2024: Focus on Infrastructure Projects 

• Vision 2024 has been envisaged to achieve targets of 2024 MT freight loading by 2024.
• For the purpose the importance of infrastructure projects in capacity creation, removing the bottlenecks by keeping focus on safety cannot be underestimated.
• For fast pace execution of projects, New Paradigm shift has taken place in planning of projects, so that, available resources are utilized judiciously for optimum results.
• 58 Super Critical & 68 Critical projects have been identified for resource allocation for through put enhancement at faster pace.
• Super critical projects are targeted for completion by Dec’2021 and Critical projects by Mar’2024.

• As on 01-04-2020, 513 projects are ongoing. 
  • 189 New Line,
  • 55 Gauge Conversion &
  • 270 Doubling projects

Overall fund requirement by 2024:

Doubling:

• 58 Super Critical projects of total length 3,750 Km (balance length 1471 Km), total cost Rs. 36,700 Cr., throw forward of Rs. 8,100 Cr. has been planned to complete by Dec’2021 except 2 projects which will be completed by Mar’2022. 

• 68 Critical projects of total length 6,918 Km (balance length 6075 Km), costing Rs. 69,900 Cr., throw forward of Rs. 45400 Cr. are to be completed by Mar’2024. 

• Additional 20 Coal projects of total length 2350 Km (balance length 1508 Km), costing Rs. 29,800 Cr., throw forward Rs. 15000 Cr. are targeted for completion by Mar’2024 (31 Coal projects and 10 Port connectivity projects are covered in Super Critical & Critical projects). The coal projects include 7 new line of total length 619 km(balance length 377 km) costing Rs 12903 Cr (throw forward of Rs 4639 Cr) and 1 gauge conversion project of length 285 km (balance length 24km) costing Rs 2005 Cr (throw forward of Rs 288 Cr.) 

• In addition, 48 projects on HDN & HUN routes of total length 3,700 Km (balance length 3444 Km), costing Rs. 42,800 Cr., throw forward of Rs. 34463 Cr. are to be completed by Mar’2024.

New Line: Focus will be to complete National Projects

• 4 National projects falling in NE Region of total length 294 Km (balance length 282 Km) costing of around Rs. 27,500 Cr. and throw forward Rs. 12094 Cr will be completed by Mar’2023. USBRL project of total 272 Km length (balance length 111 Km), costing Rs. 28000 Cr. and throw forward of Rs. 9949 Cr. by Dec’2022. 2 Projects (Rishikesh-Karanprayag and Bhanupalli-Bilaspur) oftotal length 188 Km costing around Rs. 23,000 Cr. throw forward of Rs. 20718 Cr. will be completed by Mar’2025.

Gauge Conversion:

• 30 Gauge conversion projects of total length 3913 km (balance length 2,292 Km) costing around Rs. 31,200 Cr. and throw forward of Rs 15053 Cr. Total 2146 Km Gauge Conversion will be completed by Mar-2024.

Traffic Facility:

• 105 Traffic facilities work costing Rs. 10150 Cr. with throw forward of Rs. 6782 Cr. to be completed by Mar’2024.

• 146 Railway electrification projects of balance length 23800 Km, throw forward of Rs. 20209 Cr. will be completed by Dec’2023.

Signaling & Telecommunication work including provision of TCAS, Automatic Signaling, LTE & CTC on HDN & Freight Dense HUN routes, elimination of electro-mechanical signaling, replacement of overaged signaling gears, interlocking of LC gates & other miscellaneous works costing Rs. 21014 Cr. are to be completed by Mar’2024. Out of this Rs 8871 Cr will be charged to RRSK and Rs. 12143 Cr will be charged to EBR-IF.

Raising of sectional speed:

• Works for raising  of sectional speed to 160 kmph on New Delhi- Mumbai (incl. Vadodara- Ahmedabad) and New Delhi- Howrah (incl. Kanpur- Lucknow) routes costing Rs. 6804 Cr. and Rs 6684 Cr. respectively will be completed by August’ 2023.

• Infrastructural works for raising of sectional speed to 130 kmph on balance Golden Quadrilateral and Diagonal routes will be completed and speed will be raised to 130 kmph by December’2021. 

Elimination of Manned level crossings from GQ-GD routes:

To enhance safety and operational speed on Golden Quadrilateral & Golden Diagonal, Manned level crossings (MLCs) are to be removed on priority. 

As on 01.04.2020, 2429 MLC are existing on GQ-GD routes. As per survey done by zonal railways 1186 LCs are to replaced by ROBs, 1223 by RUBs and 20 LCs by diversion at a total approx. cost of Rs. 41200 Cr.  Work is targeted to be completed by March 2025.

• Also read
• Indian Railways: National Rail Plan 2030.
• Indian Railways Policy on Development of Goods-sheds through Private Investment
• Kisan Rail: 50% Govt subsidy on transportation of fruits, vegetables by IR

Source: PIB