Railways has taken up a number of projects for infrastructure development in Tamil Nadu duly allotting substantial budget.
Average Budget Allocation for Infrastructure projects and safety works, falling fully/partly in State of Tamil Nadu, for 2014-19 is rupees 1,979 crore, which is 225% of the average annual Budget outlay of 2009-14 (rupees 879 crore).
Allocation of Budget for infrastructure projects and safety works falling fully/partly in State of Tamil Nadu, for 2019-2020 is rupees 2,410 crore, which is 274% of the average annual Budget outlay of 2009-14 (rupees 879 crore).
Presently, 09 New Line Projects covering a length of 871 Km at a cost of rupees 11,612 crore, 08 Doubling Projects covering a length of 592 Km at a cost of rupees 5,673 crore and 10 Railway Electrification projects covering route Km of 1633 route Km at a cost of rupees1570 crore, falling fully/partly in the State of Tamil Nadu are under different stages of planning/sanction/execution. The aggregate cost of these 27 projects is rupees 18, 855 crore.
The timely completion of any Railway project depends on various factors like quick land acquisition by State Government, forest clearance by officials of forest department, shifting of infringing utilities (both underground and overground), statutory clearances from various authorities, geological and topographical conditions of area, law and order situation in the area of project site, number of working months in a year for particular project site due to climatic conditions, encountering unforeseen conditions like earthquake, flooding, excessive rains, strikes of labour, orders of Hon’ble Courts, situation and conditions of working agencies/contractors etc.
All these factors vary from project to project and site to site and affect the completion time and cost of the project, which is finally worked out at the completion stage.
This information was given by the Minister of Railways and Commerce & Industry, Shri Piyush Goyal in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.
