Indian Railways has approved a set of major infrastructure projects across Southern Railway, Northern Railway and South Eastern Railway to eliminate congestion, enhance line capacity, improve safety systems and enable faster, more reliable passenger and freight movement. The approvals cover line doubling, third and fourth lines, bypass corridors and the installation of advanced electronic interlocking systems to increase operational resilience on high density routes.

Key projects include the Barbenda-Damrughutu doubling and the Damrughutu-Bokaro Steel City third and fourth line project in Jharkhand as part of the Energy, Mineral and Cement Corridor. The route is operating at 108 per cent utilisation with train detention between 90 and 150 minutes, handling 78 trains daily, including 38 passenger and 40 freight services and supporting a freight throughput of 35.22 million tonnes per annum (mn t per annum). Without augmentation utilisation was projected to rise to 132 per cent by 2028-29.

To improve signalling and safeguard operations Electronic Interlocking has been approved at 34 stations on Northern Railway where the Kavach protection system is being rolled out, including 21 stations in the Delhi Division at a cost of Rs 2,922.4 mn and 13 stations in the Ambala Division at a cost of Rs 1,291.7 mn. The Rajpura Bypass will provide direct connectivity between the New Shambhu Dedicated Freight Corridor station and Kauli on the Rajpura Bathinda line, allowing freight trains to bypass Rajpura Yard and streamlining flow.

Removal of the single line constraint on the Ernakulam Turavur Kayankulam route will enable nine additional passenger trains per day in each direction, add 2.88 mn t per annum of freight capacity and generate Rs 32.3 mn in annual earnings. The Palakkad bypass will eliminate engine reversal and cut passenger detention by 40 to 44 minutes and freight detention by up to 120 minutes. Doubling Irugur Podanur will permit 15 additional passenger trains per day, increase freight capacity by 3.12 mn t per annum and raise annual net earnings by Rs 117.7 mn while supporting the transformation of the Chennai Coimbatore Podanur belt into a high capacity four line corridor. With timely cooperation from State Governments the projects are expected to deliver faster journeys, higher freight efficiency, improved safety and sustained economic growth.