60 railway stations in North-east to be revamped, says Railway Minister

KOHIMA — The Union government has allocated INR 10,376 crore for the development of railways in the north-eastern region, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said at a press conference on Wednesday.

Addressing journalists virtually from Delhi, Vaishnaw informed that the Railway Ministry is working on revamping 60 railway stations in the region to transform them into Amrit Stations.

Fifty such projects will be developed in Assam, while the remaining will be developed in Arunachal Pradesh (Naharlagun, Itanagar), Manipur (Imphal), Meghalaya (Mendi Pathar), Mizoram (Sairang, Aizawl), Nagaland (Dimapur), Sikkim (Rangpo), and Tripura (Agartala, Dharmanagar, Kumarghat, and Udaipur).

The minister also said that INR 74,972 crore has already been allocated for 18 ongoing projects involving new tracks of 1,368 km.

Highlighting the significant increase in railway budget allocation, he said that the average annual outlay has surged fivefold from INR 2,122 crore between 2009-14 to a projected INR 10,376 crore in 2024-25.

Further, average length of new railway tracks laid per year has increased by 2.5 times, from 67 km during 2009-14 to 173 km between 2014-24, he maintained.

Vaishnaw also pointed out that while no railway lines were electrified from 2009-14, the period from 2014-24 witnessed 142 km of electrification.