New Delhi: Indian Railways will expand the line networks in seven routes at an estimated cost of around Rs 32,500 crore, including between Son Nagar, Bihar, and Andal, Bengal.
The Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs gave the green signal on Wednesday.
Officials said the Son Nagar– Andal project would be of a length of 374.5 Km and cost Rs 13,606 crore.
At present, 35 trains are operational each way and this will increase to more than 100 by 2050. It will decongest the Delhi-Howrah route, while the Delhi-Howrah industrial corridor will get a boost.
The seven projects cover 35 districts in nine states — Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Odisha, Jharkhand and Bengal — will increase the existing network of Indian Railways by 2,339 km.
Rail minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said these are essential routes for transportation of varied basket of commodities such as foodgrains, fertilisers, coal, cement, fly-ash, iron and finished steel, clinkers, crude oil, lime stone and edible oil.
Digital India
The Cabinet has approved the expansion of the Digital India programme, with an outlay of Rs 14,903 crore.
The programme was launched on July 1, 2015, to enable digital delivery of services to citizens.
The initiative would re-skill and upskill 6.25 lakh IT professionals under the FutureSkills Prime Programme.
Nine more supercomputers will be added under the National Super Computer Mission in addition to 18 currently.
