The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved four railway projects and a highway project worth a total Rs 13,041 crore, including three railway projects aimed at quadrupling sections of the Howrah-Chennai main railway line to increase passenger and freight capacity on the key east coast corridor.
The first three railway projects approved by the Cabinet are part of the Howrah-Chennai High Density Network route and involve adding the third and fourth lines on key sections, Union Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said at a Cabinet briefing.
“From Howrah to Chennai, we will ultimately have a complete quadrupled, four-line route. This will allow us to operate many more trains. It will also facilitate the movement of cargo and make maintenance easier,” Vaishnaw said.
The three projects on the Howrah-Chennai route are the fourth line between Kharagpur and Bhadrak (Ranital), the fourth line between Bhadrak and Haridaspur, and the third and fourth lines between Gummidipundi and Gudur.
Howrah-Chennai railway line to get four-line corridor
The Howrah-Chennai route is one of the country's key railway corridors, carrying long-distance passenger and freight traffic between eastern and southern India.
Vaishnaw said the railway network has seven key lines, including the Delhi-Howrah, Howrah-Chennai and Chennai-Mumbai routes, along with diagonal routes connecting Delhi with Chennai and Mumbai with Howrah, and the northeastern line towards Guwahati.
