Of sanctioned amount, 72% incurred on USBRL Project: GoI

By
Daily Excelsior
-

Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 29: An amount of Rs 26786 crore (around 72%) has been incurred on the Rs 37012 crore Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Railway Line (USBRL) Project.
This information was provided in the Lok Sabha today by Minister of Railways, Communications and Electronics & Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnav, in reply to an unstarred question of National Conference MP, Hasnain Masoodi.
“The Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail link (USBRL) project (272 km) was sanctioned in 1994-95. Anticipated cost of the project is Rs 37,012 crore, against which, expenditure of Rs 26,786 crore has been incurred up to March, 2022,” the Union Minister said in Lok Sabha.
Of 272 km length of USBRL project, Ashwini Vaishnav, the Union Minister said, a length of 161 Km has already been commissioned.
“Work on balance stretch of Katra-Banihal section of 111 Km has been taken up,” he said.
Replying another question about the expected timeline for the completion of the project, he said, the completion of any Railway project(s) depends on various factors like quick land acquisition by State Government, forest clearance by officials of forest department, deposition of cost by State Government in cost sharing projects, shifting of infringing utilities, statutory clearances from various authorities, geological and topographical conditions of area, law and order situation in the area of project(s) site, number of working months in a year for particular project site due to climatic considerations etc.
“All these factors affect the completion time of the project(s),” he said.
On whether the Ministry is likely to increase the trains deployed to Kashmir, he said, at present, 19 (nineteen) passenger special train services are running in Baramulla-Budgam-Banihal section of USBRL Project.
“Moreover, introduction of new train services or extension of existing train services is an ongoing process over Indian Railways subject to traffic demand, operational feasibility and availability of rolling stock,” he further said.

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