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Govt plans to increase rail line doubling work by more than 110 per cent in FY19

New Delhi: The government plans to increase the Doubling/3rd and 4th line work more than 110 per cent on average across the country in FY19.

A ministry source claimed that it is planning to extend to 2100 km in 2018-19, which was 999 km in FY18.

During the previous regime, only 5,970 km such works were included in the budget where 14,480 km was included in 2014-15, ministry data shows.

From 2009 to 2014 the average was 375 km/year, where it increases to 859.3 km/ year by 2017- a 229 per cent

increase in the capacity enhancement project than the previous period.

Till 2013-14, due to overall limited availability of funds, most of the projects were not progressing satisfactorily. Therefore, to expedite these projects, funds have been arranged through institutional financing. Even there the ministry data shows a 415 per cent growth during the incumbent NDA regime, which is expected to touch 705 per cent mark in the current financial year. From 2009-14 the annual expenditure was Rs. 2462 crore, which increased to Rs. 10229 crore from 2014 to 2018.

Furthermore, the rail minister Piyush Goyal said that his ministry is all set to approach the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs for the clearance of few doubling of the railway line projects, like the new Bongaigaon-Guwahati

line in Assam. Enhancing infrastructure for better connectivity has always been a target of Goyal.

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