Broad gauge rail track conversion in northeast to be completed soon

Dedicated freight corridor would be commissioned by December 2019

vishwas

Vishwas Dass | November 11, 2016 | New Delhi


#bullet trains   #dedicated freigh corridor   #broad gauge   #Railways  


Railway board chairman A.K. Mital on Friday said that the conversion of metre gauge tracks into broad gauge in the north eastern states would be completed by the end of current fiscal to give a boost to economic activities in the region.

He added that they would not leave any stone unturned to strengthen rail infrastructure in the region. 
 
Speaking at the Economic Editors’ Conference, Mital highlighted achievements of the Indian Railways in the last two and a half years. He admitted that dedicated freight corridor (DFC) project had languished earlier, but in the past two years, a lot of progress was made. 
He said that the DFC project would be commissioned by December 2019 and the freight trains would run at an average speed of 70 kmph. An investment of Rs 35,000 crore has been made in the last two years for the project.
 
On unmanned level crossings (ULCs), Mital said that all of the ULCs would be manned in the next four years to put an end to mishaps. “We are working to ensure zero fatalities,” he added. 
 
All the state capitals would be connected with each other by May 2020, he said.
 
On the merger of railway budget with the union budget, Mital said there are no negative implications because of the move and it is the railways, which is going to benefit. “It is a very simple merger and does not have any adverse implications,” he said.
 
Railway minister Suresh Prabhu is on a three day tour to north eastern states and could not attend the conference. But, in a video message, Prabhu said proactive steps are being taken by the railways to speed up crucial projects like high speed trains, dedicated freight corridor (DFC), cleanliness at stations and in trains and, internet connectivity. 

Comments

 

Other News

Is BharatNet digging too deep?

India’s ambition to become a digitally empowered society rests on the premise that every citizen, regardless of geography, should have access to reliable and affordable internet. At the heart of this mission is BharatNet, a flagship programme launched by the government of India to provide high-speed

WAVES Summit: A Global Media Powerhouse

In 2019, at the inauguration of National Museum of Indian Cinema, prime minister Narendra Modi had expressed his wish to have a forum of global repute similar to the World Economic Forum, Davos, for India’s media and entertainment (M&E) industry. That wish became reality with the WAVES Summit in

India’s silent lead crisis

Flint, Michigan, was a wake-up call. Lead contamination in water supplied to homes in that American city led to a catastrophic public health emergency in 2014, which is yet to be fully resolved. But India’s lead poisoning crisis is ten times worse- larger, quieter, and far most devastating. Nearly ha

‘Dial 100’: A tribute to the police force and its unsung heroes

Dial 100  By Kulpreet Yadav HarperCollins, 232 pages, Rs 299  A wife conspires with her ex-lover to mur

India’s economic duality: formal dreams, informal realities

“Whatever you can rightly say about India, the opposite is also true.” – Joan Robinson In its pursuit of becoming a $5 trillion economy, India has laid significant emphasis on formalizing its economic architecture—expanding digital payments, mandating

Visionary Talk: Amitabh Gupta, Pune Police Commissioner with Kailashnath Adhikari, MD, Governance Now





Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter