Cabinet approves railway projects worth ₹6,456 cr

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Wednesday approved three projects of the Ministry of Railways with a total estimated cost of ₹6,456 crore.

The three projects cover seven districts in four states - Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal  and Chhattisgarh and will increase the existing network of Indian Railways by about 300 kilometres.

The approved projects aim to improve logistical efficiency by connecting the unconnected areas, increase the existing line capacity and enhancing transportation networks, resulting in streamlined supply chains and accelerated economic growth, the government says.

The projects are part of PM-Gati Shakti National Master Plan for multi-modal connectivity.

With these projects 14 new stations will be constructed, providing enhancing connectivity to two districts Nuapada and East Singhbum. New Line projects will provide connectivity to around 1,300 villages and about 11 lakh population. Multi-tracking project will enhance connectivity to around 1,300 villages and about 19 lakh population, the government says.

These are essential routes for transportation of commodities such as agriculture products, fertiliser, coal, iron ore, steel, cement, limestone etc.

The capacity augmentation works will result in additional freight traffic of magnitude 45 MTPA (million tonnes per annum), the government says. “The Railways being environment friendly and energy efficient mode of transportation, will help both in achieving climate goals and minimising logistics cost of the country, reduce oil import (10 crore litres) and lower CO2 emissions by 240 crore Kg which is equivalent to plantation of 9.7 crore trees,” it adds.

The new line proposals will provide direct connectivity and improve mobility, providing enhanced efficiency and service reliability for Indian Railways. The multi-tracking proposal will ease operations and reduce congestion, providing the much-required infrastructural development on the busiest sections across Indian Railways, the government says.

The Union Cabinet also approved the proposal of the Ministry of Power for providing central financial assistance to the state governments of North Eastern Region (NER) towards their equity participation for the development of hydro electric projects through joint venture collaboration between state entities and central public sector undertakings (PSUs).

This scheme has an outlay of ₹4,136 crore to be implemented from 2024-25 to FY32. A cumulative hydro capacity of about 15,000 megawatt would be supported under the scheme. The scheme would be funded through 10% gross budgetary support (GBS) for the North Eastern Region from the total outlay of the Ministry of Power.

The grant towards the equity portion of the state government of NER would be capped at 24% of the total project equity subject to a maximum of ₹750 crore per project. The cap of ₹750 crore for each project would be revisited on a case-to-case basis. The ratio of equity of the CPSU and the State Government in the JV would be maintained at the time of disbursing of the grant, the government says.