Indian Railways is on its way to deliver 58 supercritical and 68 critical projects costing more than Rs 115,000 crore in the next few years to make it future-ready. Railways told the media that it is going on rapidly to complete the projects which are vital for increasing the capacity of tracks despite challenges brought in by the Covid-19 pandemic. In the last year, 29 supercritical projects of the total length of 1,044 Km worth Rs 11,588 crore were commissioned. Completion of 27 projects by December 2021 is estimated, and the remaining two projects by March 2022. Indian Railways have identified 58 supercritical projects of a total length of 3,750 km worth Rs 39,663 crore. 27 supercritical projects will be completed by December 2021, while two projects will be handed over by March 2022. The high density and highly utilised network routes constitute 51% route length of the Indian Railways network but carry 96% of traffic. Railways said that the projects requiring urgent expansion including those which are already progressing well, have been categorised as supercritical projects and the projects requiring completion in the next stage have been categorised as critical projects. They further added that by focussed funding and continuous monitoring, these projects are targeted for early completion to get the investment benefits.This project's completion will improve mobility, safety and will create additional capacity for running more passenger and freight trains on these saturated and busy routes. Indian Railways has identified 68 critical projects of total length 6,913 km costing Rs 75,736 crore, and out of these four projects of 108-Km length, costing Rs 1,408 crore has been completed to date. It plans to complete the remaining projects by March 2024. Railways also delivered some major capacity-building projects in Assam, West Bengal, Maharashtra, and Uttarakhand. After completion of these supercritical and critical projects, more line capacity will be available for the smooth movement of passenger and freight traffic on congested routes. Image Source Also read: Indian Railways integrates 15 stations in Kashmir with WiFi facility Also read: Govt approves cab-based signalling system for Railways