The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved several railway multitracking projects worth around Rs 11,000 crore across five states. These multi-tracking proposals are poised to streamline operations and alleviate congestion on some of the country's busiest rail routes. At a Cabinet briefing, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the Cabinet has approved four-laning of seven high-density railway corridors and quadrupling the existing network. These include the Delhi-Howrah, Howrah-Mumbai, Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Guwahati, Delhi-Chennai, Howrah-Chennai, and Mumbai-Chennai routes.
The projects are planned under the PM-Gati Shakti National Master Plan with a focus on enhancing multi-modal connectivity and logistics efficiency through integrated planning and stakeholder consultations.
These cities and states benefit
These corridors connect many major cities in the country. The Delhi-Howrah route includes major stations such as Kanpur, Prayagraj, Pt. Deendayal Upadhyay, Patna, and Asansol. The Delhi-Mumbai route connects cities such as Mathura, Kota, Ratlam, Vadodara, and Surat. The Delhi-Chennai route connects cities such as Agra, Gwalior, Jhansi, Bhopal, Nagpur, and Vijayawada. The Mumbai-Chennai route includes several important areas, including Pune.
The projects will cover 14 districts across the five states and are expected to improve rail connectivity for around 4,790 villages with a combined population of about 56 lakh.
Capacity and speed of trains will increase
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said several key railway projects are part of the complete overhaul and modernisation of the Railways under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership and have been underway for the past 12 years. The additional trackage on these routes will provide increased train capacity. This will facilitate the operation of both freight and passenger trains and help handle future traffic growth.
“In today’s Cabinet meeting, there are some very important railway projects that are part of the railway modernisation work that has been underway over the past 12 years. These are projects related to the complete overhaul and modernisation of the Railways under the leadership of PM Modi…He is undertaking the four-laning and quadrupling of the seven high-density railway corridors, along with many other corridors that are expected to carry significant traffic in the future,” the minister said.
The proposed projects are essential routes for transportation of commodities such as coal, cement, iron and steel, etc. The capacity augmentation works will result in additional freight traffic of magnitude 27 MTPA (Million Tonnes Per Annum).