Source – https://www.metrorailnews.in/good-news-for-railway-commuters-two-railways-infrastructure-projects-with-a-total-project-cost-of-around-rs-6700-crore-assessed/
Publisher – Metro Rail News
NEW DELHI (Metro Rail News): In the 56th Network Planning Group meeting under PM GatiShakti, two projects of the Ministry of Railways (MoR) with a total project cost of about Rs 6700 Crore were assessed. The two projects are:
- Greenfield Railway Line Project, located in Odisha, passes through the districts of Ganjam, Nayagarh, Khandhamal, Boudh, Sambalpur and Angul districts.
- Doubling of Railway Lines in Kerala
The former will connect the industrial and mineral clusters of western Odisha with the East Coast port boosting connectivity between the industrial clusters in eastern Chhattisgarh & the east coast, while the latter would improve the quality of rail movement in a highly stressed corridor of the Southern railway.
The First project is also expected to bring overall socio-economic development in the tribal belts of Kandhamal & Boudh districts and will open up opportunities for new industrial corridors along the proposed line, while the second project will reduce travel time both for Goods as well as Passenger trains.
During the meeting, NPG acknowledged that these projects will benefit a number of aspirational districts and tribal districts by opening the door for industrial development. Discussions during the meeting highlighted the benefits of using the PM GatiShakti National Master Plan (NMP) portal in project planning, and how experience shows the NMP portal was effective in cost as well as time-saving in project planning.
Planning through digital surveys is revolutionizing the infrastructure planning process, resulting in the reduction of time taken for DPR preparation, and easy visualization of intersections of the planned project with forests/economic zones/archaeological sites/social nodes etc. It also helps in route and alignment optimization and effective last/first-mile connectivity planning to major social as well as economic zones in the project area, it was noted. Further, these projects are well integrated with other modes of transportation and thus will promote multi-modality.
