Mumbai, Feb 3 (IANS) Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav for the provision of Rs 23,778 crore for Maharashtra for various railway projects during 2025-26.
“Earlier, during 2009-14, Maharashtra used to get an average of Rs 1,181 crore per year. This year, the allocation in a single year is 20 times more. Between 2014 and 2025, an average of 191 kilometres of new railway lines have been developed in the state every year. This rate was previously on an average of 58 kilometres. During the period 2009-14, not a single route was electrified. After that, an average of 326 kilometres of routes were electrified every year between 2014 and 2025, making 3,586 kilometres in Maharashtra fully electrified. During the same period, 2,105 kilometres of routes in Maharashtra were electrified. New railway lines were built. For comparison, this length was equal to the length of the entire existing railway line in Malaysia,” said Fadnavis.
Fadnavis said that Maharashtra currently has 47 projects worth Rs 1,58,866 crore under progress. Out of this, 6,985 km of routes are under construction. This includes four ambitious projects like ‘Dedicated Freight Corridor-DFC’ approved by the Union Cabinet along with the Bullet Train. The state has Rs 5,587 crore worth of projects and 132 Amrut railway stations are being constructed through the provision.
He said that the Railway Protection System will be implemented for 4,339 routes. Of this, 576 km are currently operational. Since 2014, 1,062 Railway Flyovers, Underground Railways (RFOBs, RUBs) have been constructed at various places across the state.
Apart from this, lifts have been installed at 236 places and 302 escalators have been installed. Also, a WiFi facility has been made available at 566 railway stations. Apart from this, 11 Vande Bharat trains have been started which will be useful for 11 districts of the state, he added.
“In the journey of Maharashtra so far, there has been an unprecedented growth in railway infrastructure. This has made facilities available for passengers. Freight transport facilities have been started easily and on a large scale. Due to all this, Maharashtra has become a strong and solid state on the railway map,” he remarked.
–IANS
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