NEW DELHI, Feb 28: Indian Railway will lay 7 km of tracks every day in 2016-17 as against an average of 4.3 km per day in the last six years, as part of its capacity augmentation plan.
The drive is expected to gather further pace in 2017-18 when rails will be laid in about 13 km every day. The bar will be raised further in 2018-19 to 19 km per day, according to an action plan formulated by the public sector behemoth to bolster rail network, Railway Ministry sources said.
Laying new tracks, replacing old ones and doubling and tripling of lines are essential to clearing the traffic bottlenecks, said a senior Railway Ministry official.
Traffic congestion is becoming a bane for freight movement, railways’ major source of earning, with goods trains not getting path on priority basis.
Railways is poised to surpass the ambitious target of commissioning 2,500 km broad gauge lines in the current fiscal, 30 per cent more than the last year. According to the official, 2,800 km of tracks will be commissioned next year. (PTI)
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