Railways lists 200 high traffic projects
Programme aims at augmenting capacity of high traffic density routes with a total length of 16,600 km
Decongesting Network
- 4-laning of trunk routes
- Doubling of feeder routes
- Adequate infra for catalyzing socio-economic development
- Enhancing first and last-mile connectivity
New Delhi: The Ministry of Railways (MoR) has identified around 200 projects under the High Traffic Density Routes (HTDR) programme. The programme is aimed at augmenting the capacity of high-traffic density routes with a total length of 16,600 km, increasing and four-laning of trunk routes, and doubling of feeder routes. This, the MoR believes, will lead to the decongestion of the network and higher speed.
The HTDR programme has also adopted the area development approach to create adequate infrastructure for catalyzing socio-economic development in a sustainable manner and enhance first and last-mile connectivity, official sources told Bizz Buzz, adding that the HTDR programme will soon touch more than 6,000 villages in 210 districts en route.
There is considerable focus on the modernization of railways, the sources said. Such measures as automated signaling, yard-remodeling, terminal upgrade and bottleneck removal can increase Railways’ capacity substantially. Further, it will decongest the current network, leading to faster cargo and passenger movement.
Also helpful is the prospective use of the PM GatiShakti National Master Plan (NMP) portal in planning multimodal projects. MoR projects are also being integrated with those of the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (Bharatmala 2047) and the Ministry of Shipping & Waterways (Sagarmala 2030). This helps establish multimodal hubs, enhance social infrastructure connectivity, lowers logistics costs, and curb greenhouse gas emissions, the sources said.
Under PM GatiShakti, over 300 projects of Central Ministries and states and Union Territories worth Rs11.98 lakh crore have been evaluated. Further, more than 200 projects of states worth Rs5,496 crore have been recommended for improving logistics infrastructure.
To promote wider usage of PM GatiShakti, the Central government has urged states and UTs to leverage local remote sensing and space agencies for the development of geo-tagged data. It has also asked them to conduct regular meetings of the institutional mechanisms under PM GatiShakti and integrate area development principles with infrastructure planning for holistic development, the sources said.
