The Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday approved seven multi-tracking projects targeted at Indian railways with an outlay of Rs 32, 500 crore, Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said at a briefing.
The said projects, which will be built completely on Engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) mode, will add 2,339 kilometres to the existing network of Indian Railways, Vaishnaw said.
The projects will receive 100 per cent funding from the central government. They will cover 35 districts across Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Odisha, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
Sought to ease operations and reduce congestion, the projects will also add freight traffic of around 200 million tonnes per annum. “Every project depends on the other projects and must not be looked at independently,” said Vaishnaw.
“The projects will provide employment of 7.06 crore person-days to the people of the selected states,” the government said in its presentation.