Nearly 498 railway projects worth Rs 6.75 lakh crore are in different stages of execution, planning, and sanction, Minister of Railways Piyush Goyal informed Lok Sabha in a written reply.

The projects include 188 new lines, 55 gauge conversion and 255 doubling projects and the total length of these projects is 49,069 km.

To ensure that projects are completed even before time, Railways has also adopted the concept of incentives to the contractor in the form of a bonus clause in contracts which will further enhance the pace of execution of projects.

The timely completion of any railway project depends on various factors like a quick land acquisition by the state governments, forest clearance by officials of the forest department, shifting of infringing utilities (both underground and overground), statutory clearances from various authorities, geological and topographical conditions of area, law and order situation among other factors, Goyal said.

“All these factors vary from project to project and site to site and affect the completion time and cost of the project, which is finally worked out at the completion stage…lot of monitoring is done in Railways at various levels and regular meetings are held with the officials of state governments and concerned authorities to resolve the pending issues that are obstructing the progress of projects,” Goyal added.

For capacity enhancement projects, Institutional financing has been done by arranging a loan of Rs 1.5 lakh crore, which has increased Railways’ capacity for committed fund provision for essential projects, Goyal further said.