New Delhi, Feb 18: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved the construction of six rail lines and a railway bridge at an estimated cost of Rs 10,700 crore to cater to increased passenger and freight needs.
The CCEA gave its nod for the construction in a 908 km stretch, which will cost over Rs 10,700 crore. Most part of the expenditure will be met through extra budgetary resources (Institutional Financing).
The expansion includes doubling of Hubli-Chickajur line, Wardha (Sewagram)–Ballarshah third line, doubling of Ramna-Singrauli line, third line between Anuppur-Katni, doubling of Katni-Singrauli line and an additional bridge, and doubling of Rampur Dumra-Tal-Rajendrapul line.
The doubling of 190 km long Hubli-Chickajur railway line is likely to be completed in more than four years during the 13th Plan period and will cover Chitradurga, Davangere, Haveri and Dharwad areas of Karnataka, it said.
The Pune-Miraj-Hubli-Bangalore route has been identified for doubling, which will improve rail traffic flow and boost overall development of the region.
The stretch is part of an important rail link of passenger trains between Mumbai and Bangalore and goods trains to the ports at Mangalore. The doubling of tracks between Bangalore-Tumkur and Arsikere-Chickajur has already been completed on this link.
Doubling work between Hubli-Londa part of Hubli-Londa-Vasco-da-Gama is in progress.
Construction of the 132 km long Wardha (Sewagram) –Ballarshah third railway line is likely to be completed in five years in Wardha and Chandrapur districts of Maharashtra.
The line capacity utilisation of the section is saturated and running of additional Mail/Express and goods traffic over causes delay in movement of the trains.
