Cabinet clears ₹13,041 crore rail, highway projects

PM Modi’s Cabinet Greenlights ₹13,041 Crore for Rail Quadrupling and Bihar Highway

Theindiapostdaily.com – Prime Minister Narendra Modi, presiding over the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on Wednesday, gave the nod to a package of infrastructure works totalling ₹13,041 crore. The clearance covers four railway track-quadrupling initiatives along the Howrah–Chennai corridor and a single highway construction in Bihar.

Why the Howrah–Chennai Corridor Demands Expansion

Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Ashwini Vaishnaw placed the Howrah–Chennai line among India’s most congested rail arteries, alongside the Mumbai–Chennai, Delhi–Mumbai, and Delhi–Howrah corridors. According to a cabinet statement, the four approved multi-tracking schemes span eight districts in West Bengal, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh, adding roughly 410 kilometres to the existing Indian Railways grid.

The capacity uplift is projected to serve around 6,448 villages home to approximately six million people, the statement noted.

“If we look at India’s rail network, the Delhi-Howrah, Howrah-Chennai, Chennai-Mumbai, and the Mumbai-Delhi, as well as the diagonal routes from Delhi to Chennai and Mumbai to Howrah, along with the line extending from Howrah to Guwahati, these seven routes are about 11% of the route, but they take 40% of the traffic. That is why these lines are very important,” Vaishnaw said.

“That is why these routes are all being expanded, quadrupled,” he added.

The Four Rail Projects in Detail

The largest single allocation goes to the Kharagpur–Bhadrak quadrupling at ₹3,352 crore. The Cuttack–Paradeep scheme, priced at ₹2,286 crore, will link Paradeep port on India’s eastern seaboard to the Howrah–Chennai spine and is expected to absorb an additional 12 million tonnes of freight annually, Vaishnaw stated.

The Gummidipundi–Gudur quadrupling (₹2,229 crore) will introduce 21.24 million tonnes of cargo capacity per year, while the Bhadrak–Haridaspur line (₹1,583 crore) will contribute 29 million tonnes of extra freight throughput each year.

Strategic Rationale Behind the Push

A cabinet presentation tabled on Wednesday outlined the broader objectives: easing the acute saturation of current rail corridors, accommodating projected demand growth, strengthening container flows to ports, advancing multimodal logistics, and widening access to religious and tourism sites.

The capacity gains will open rail links to numerous heritage and natural-attraction destinations, including Kuldiha Wildlife Sanctuary, Bhitarkanika National Park, the Maa Bhadrakali and Maa Dhamarai temples, Panchalingeswar Temple, Talsari-Udaypur, Chandipur Beach, Pulicat Lake, Nelapattu Bird Sanctuary, Lord Veeraraghava Perumal Temple, Gada Kujanga Jagannath Temple, Sarala Temple, Dhabaleswar Temple, and the Buddhist site at Lalitgiri, the cabinet statement enumerated.

Bihar Highway Cleared Under Hybrid Annuity Model

Alongside the rail measures, the committee sanctioned an 82-kilometre, four-lane highway connecting Muzaffarpur to Sonbarsa in Bihar. Valued at ₹3,591 crore, the project will be executed under the Hybrid Annuity Model within a 30-month window. Officials project the new alignment will halve the current two-hour journey between the two towns to roughly one hour while also linking religious sites in the region.