Garhwal Post Bureau
New Delhi, 30 Jul: Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw replied to a starred question in the Lok Sabha today that was put up by Nainital MP Ajay Bhatt regarding the project-wise total amount of funds allocated to Uttarakhand for new railway projects during the last three years and the current year.
In the reply Union Railway minister said that the Railway projects are surveyed/ sanctioned/executed Zonal wise and not State-wise as the Railways’ projects may span across state boundaries. He added that New Lines projects falling fully/partly in Uttarakhand are covered under Northern Railway (NR) and North Eastern Railway (NER) Zones of Indian Railways.
He informed the House that as on 1 April 2025, 3 New Lines, covering a total length of 216 Km costing Rs 40,384 crore falling fully/partly in the State of Uttarakhand are sanctioned, out of which 16 km length has been commissioned and an expenditure of Rs19,898 crore has been incurred up to March’ 2025.
The status of work is summarised as under:-
| Category | No. of projects | Total Length (in Km) |
Length Commissioned
(in Km) |
Expenditure upto March 2025 (Rs in crore) |
| New Lines | 03 | 216 | 16 | 19,898 |
Budget allocation for Infrastructure projects and safety works, falling fully/ partly in Uttarakhand is as under:
| Period | Outlay |
| 2009-14 | Rs 187 Crore/year |
| 2025-26 | Rs 4,641 Crore (nearly 25 times) |
In reply to MP Ajay Bhatt’s question, Ashwini Vaishnaw stated that, recently, the Deoband-Roorkee new line project (27 km) had been completed. This project will reduce the distance between Delhi and Dehradun by approximately 40 km.
Regarding the Rishikesh-Karnaprayag new rail line project of 125 km, the Union Minister said that this is a prestigious project of Indian Railways which lies completely in the state of Uttarakhand. It passes through difficult geological and challenging terrain of Himalayas. This project is aimed at transforming connectivity in Uttarakhand. The project will provide rail connectivity to Devprayag and Karnaprayag religious and tourist spots with Rishikesh and National Capital of India. This prestigious project predominantly passes through tunnels. The project involves construction of 16 main line tunnels of 105 km length and 12 escape tunnels of about 98 km length. He stated that, so far, 13 main line tunnels and 9 escape tunnels have been completed. To increase progress of works, 8 adits in various tunnels were also identified. These adits created additional work faces of tunnel excavation expediting early completion of long tunnels. Works of all 8 adits have also been completed. Ashwini informed the house that tunneling of 199 km against total scope of 213 km has been completed. He said that for the first time in Indian Railways, Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) was deployed in the Himalayan Geology for faster execution of works of longest tunnel (T-8) which is 14.8 km long. Breakthrough of this tunnel through TBM has been achieved. The tunneling is being carried out with all precautions and latest technologies to ensure minimum damage to ecology and surroundings. He informed the house that during the last three years that is 2022-23, 2023-24, 2024-25 and the current FY 2025-26, 03 surveys (2 New Line and 1 Doubling) of a total length of 146 km have been sanctioned falling fully/partly in the state of Uttarakhand.
