The Cabinet on Friday cleared eight major railway projects across seven States worth nearly ₹25,000 crore.
These projects developed under PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan; and will be part of the energy, mineral and cement corridor proposed in the Budget earlier this year.
These eight projects cover 7 States, namely Odisha, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Telangana and West Bengal.
A total of 800 Km of new line – 64 new stations will come up under these projects.
“The Railways will carry additional cargo of more than 140 million tonnes per year,” Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said. Over 767 crore kg of CO2 savings will take place as mineral loading switches over to Railways from existing systems.
A new rail corridor parallel to eastern coast of India - which was initially proposed under the Dedicated Freight Corridor- will cover Warangal, Bhadrachalam, Jeypore, Titagarh, Sambalpur, Jharsuguda, Rourkela, Tatanagar and Asansol. This corridor will cover seven states of the East.
Projects have a completion deadline of 2029-30, and some have earlier deadline of 2028-29.
“The new projects will connect Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattigarh to ports of the East coast,” Vaishnaw said.
In Maharashtra, the Ajanta Caves Rail connectivity project from Jalna to Jalgaon is valued at over ₹7,500 crore and will help the cement sector apart from ramping up passenger services.
“Tribal areas of Odisha will also benefit majorly through these projects,” the Minister said.