Cabinet Approves ₹9,450 Crore Railway Projects and ₹3,591 Crore Bihar Highway Corridor
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved four railway projects worth around ₹9,450 crore spanning West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. The projects will add about 410 km to the Indian Railways network and are scheduled for completion by 2030-31.
The approved works include a 173-km fourth line between Kharagpur and Bhadrak (Ranital) costing ₹3,352 crore, a 75-km fourth line between Bhadrak and Haridaspur costing ₹1,583 crore, 90 km of third and fourth lines between Gummidipundi and Gudur costing ₹2,229 crore, and 72 km of third and fourth lines between Cuttack and Paradeep (Badabandha) costing ₹2,286 crore. The Kharagpur-Bhadrak and Cuttack-Paradeep sections have four-year completion timelines.
The Railway Ministry said the projects will improve capacity on routes carrying coal, iron ore, cement, iron and steel, containers, automobiles and food grains, and will together add freight capacity ranging from 12 to 29 million tonnes per annum across the four corridors. The projects cover eight districts and are expected to improve connectivity to around 6,448 villages.
Separately, the Cabinet also approved the development of an 83-km, four-lane brownfield highway corridor between Muzaffarpur, Sitamarhi and Sonbarsa on NH-22 in Bihar. The project carries an outlay of ₹3,591 crore and will be developed under the Hybrid Annuity Mode (HAM), with construction expected to take 30 months.
The highway project will include seven major bridges, three road overbridges, six vehicular underpasses, and a 340-metre bridge across the Bagmati river. It is expected to cut travel time between Muzaffarpur and Sonbarsa from two hours to one hour and will connect several PM Gati Shakti economic, social and logistics nodes.