In Budget, UP gets Rs 7,118 cr outlay for rail projects

POLL-BOUND UTTAR Pradesh has got Rs 7,118 crore outlay worth of Railway projects this Budget — around Rs 6,000 crore more than the allocation to the projects in the state in the entire UPA-II tenure, according to the Railway Ministry’s Demands for Grants tabled in Parliament on Friday.

In terms of average allocation, this is 541 per cent more than that during the UPA tenure between 2009 and 2014.

Around 2,000 km worth of new line and doubling surveys have been sanctioned, while 431-km worth of new line, gauge conversion and doubling works have been sanctioned. When complete, these works will cost around Rs 8,530 crore. Cost of the project is different from the amount allocated in a particular year.

The total works also include 1,371 route km of electrification as well at a cost of Rs 1,162 crore.

These are mostly capacity augmentation works where railway lines are running at upwards of 130 per cent of the capacity due to high density of traffic.

Elimination of level crossings is also a major thrust in the state with around 132 road overbridges and underbridges/subways being sanctioned at a cost of Rs 1538 crore out of which the railways will pay around Rs 797 crore while the state will pay the rest.

A total of 23 road overbridges will be constructed in the dense traffic areas of Varanasi, Mughalsarai, Allahabad, Jhansi, Kanpur and others.

Uttar Pradesh hosts some of the heaviest traffic routes on Indian Railways. Railway officials said the allocation is strictly on the basis of what the national transporter needs to smoothen its operations in the future.