32 railway projects costing Rs 64,429 cr under different stages of development in Andhra: Piyush Goyal

As many as 32 railway projects costing Rs 64,429 crore covering a length of 5,704 km falling fully or partly in Andhra Pradesh are under the different stage of planning, approval and execution, informed Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday.

In a written reply to a question raised by Parimal Nathw, Goyal said, "As on April 1, 2020, 32 railway projects (16 new lines and 16 doublings) costing Rs 64,429 crore covering a length of 5,704 km falling fully/partly in Andhra Pradesh are under the different stage of planning/approval/execution - out of which 336 km length has been commissioned at an expenditure of Rs 10,455 crore up to March 2020."

He said that the average annual budget allocation for infrastructure projects and safety works, falling fully/partly in Andhra Pradesh, during 2014-19 has increased to Rs 2,830 crore per year from Rs 886 crore per year during 2009-14.

"Thus, an increase of 219 per cent over the average annual budget allocation of 2009-14. In 2019-20, budget allocation was raised further to Rs 3,885 crore, in 2020-21 it was increased to Rs 4,910 crore and in 2021-22 the highest ever budget outlay of Rs 5,812 crore has been proposed for these projects," the minister said.

During last three years (FY2019, FY2020 and FY2021), four double line and five Railway Electrification projects falling partly/fully in Andhra Pradesh have been included in budget subject to requisite approvals, he added.

( With inputs from ANI )