In a significant development, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Monday approved a new railway line project worth Rs 18,036 crore.
The proposed new line between Indore and Manmad will provide direct connectivity and improve mobility, providing enhanced efficiency and service reliability for Indian Railways.
As per the information shared by the CCEA, the project covers 6 Districts in 2 States i.e., Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh will increase the existing network of Indian Railways by about 309 Kms.
With this project 30 New Stations will be constructed, providing enhanced connectivity to Aspirational District Barwani. The New Line project will provide connectivity to approx. 1,000 villages and about 30 Lakh population.
The project will provide direct connectivity to Pithampur Auto Cluster (houses 90 large units and 700 small and medium industries) from the gateway port of JNPA and other state ports.
It will also provide direct connectivity to millet producing districts of Madhya Pradesh and Onion producing districts of Maharashtra which further facilitates in the distribution of the same to northern and southern parts of the country.
This is an essential route for transportation of commodities such as agriculture products, fertilizer, containers, iron ore, steel, cement, POL etc, CCEA said.
The capacity augmentation work will result in additional freight traffic of magnitude of about 26 MTPA (Million Tonnes Per Annum).
The Railways being environment friendly and energy efficient mode of transportation, will help both in achieving climate goals and minimizing logistics cost of the country, reduce oil import (18 Crore Litres) and lower CO2 emissions (138 Crore Kg) which is equivalent to plantation of 5.5 Crore trees.
The project is result of PM-Gati Shakti National Master Plan for multi-modal connectivity which have been possible through integrated planning and will provide seamless connectivity for movement of people, goods and services.