The Railway projects in Northeast that have been pending for over a decade will be completed by 2023.
Railway Board chairman VK Yadav said the priority of the railways in the next five years is to complete its 50 remaining super critical projects, augmenting capacity in order to introduce 1,500 new trains and wrap up its projects of national importance.
He said the Railways have a set a new deadline to complete the 51.38-km Bhairabi-Sairang project in Mizoram by 2023.
A cost of Rs 5,021 crore has been proposed for the project, which was sanctioned in 2008-2009.
The Railway Budget 2020-21 has proposed an outlay of Rs 400 crore for the new broad gauge railway line for the year.
The railways has also set a deadline of March 2023 for the BG line connectivity from Dimapur (Dhansiri) to Zubza (Kohima) (82.50 km) in Nagaland, which was sanctioned in 2006-07.
The Railway Budget 2020-21 has earmarked Rs 300 crore for this project. The total cost of the project is Rs 4,600 crore.
In Sikkim, the Sivok-Rangpo new BG line (44.39 km) which was sanctioned in 2008-2009 but suffered due to delay in handing over of encumbrance free forest land by the West Bengal government is now scheduled to be completed by 2023.
This project has been allocated Rs 607 crore in the 2020-21 Union Budget.
Another long-pending project in Manipur connects Jiribam to Imphal (110.62 km), which was sanctioned in 2003-2004. It now has a deadline of 2022.
The project has been given a layout of Rs 800 crore in the 2020-21 Railway Budget while its total cost is estimated to be around Rs 12,524 crore.
Yadav further said seven of the 58 super critical projects that are underway in congested routes have been completed in 2019, while one has been wrapped up in 2018.
He said that the remaining 50 will be completed by March 2022.