Good news: Indian Railways to introduce more than 200 new lines

Indian Railways will soon launch over 200 new lines across the country. Presently, the lines are in diffrent stage of execution. The information about the number of railway lines in each state was given by Minister of State of Railways, Rajen Gohain, in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha on Thursday.

It has been revealed that the completion of Railway projects needs clearances from certain departments of State Government and Central Ministries like acquisition of land, statutory clearances like forestry and wildlife, shifting of utilities etc.The decision of introducing new lines were announced the budget on February 1, earlier this year.

Below is a list of statewise on-going project of Indian Railways:

Assam & North Eastern Region: 15

Andhra Pradesh: 18

Bihar: 34

Chhattisgarh: 8

Delhi: 1

Gujarat: 4

Haryana: 7

Himachal Pradesh: 4

Jammu & Kashmir: 1

Jharkhand: 14

Karnataka: 16

Kerala: 2

Madhya Pradesh: 8

Maharashtra: 12

Odisha: 10

Punjab: 6

Rajasthan: 10

Telangana: 9

Tamil Nadu: 8

Uttar Pradesh: 15

Uttarakhand: 3

West Bengal: 18

Meanwhile, The overhead equipment cables, which power the trains, have become a cause of concern for both the Central and Western Railways. As part of inspections of road over bridges (ROBs) passing over rail lines, it has come to fore that these cables are attached to bridges, rendering them risky. This was detected by engineers of the Indian Railways and the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, who have been assigned the task of inspecting 445 bridges across Mumbai and its metropolitan region.

These cables hang from the bottom of the ROBs. “We found that in some bridges, cables are attached to the cantilever, above which footpath exists. We will be shifting the cables onto the main girder in the coming days,” said a railway official on condition of anonymity.

These cantilever bridges are not directly a part of the main bridge – like the one in Andheri – and are prone to collapse. The OHE cables and their paraphernalia weigh at least 500 kgs or more and in case it snaps it would put more weight on the bridge below which it hangs.