Cabinet committee clears several rail, road projects

Cabinet committee clears several rail, road projects

Context:

• The government recently approved several railway projects, including a 130 km-long Jeypore-Malkangiri project at a cost of ₹ 2,676 crore and another 425 km-long Jhansi-Manikpur and Bhimsen-Khairar line doubling-cum-electrification projects costing ₹ 4,956 crore.

Introduction:

• The Jeypore-Malkangiri new line project, likely to be completed by 2021-22, will cover the left wing extremism (LWE) affected districts of Koraput and Malkangiri of Odisha.
• The Jhansi-Manikpur and Bhimsen-Khairar projects are likely to be completed by 2022-23.
• The projects will cover the districts of Jhansi, Mahoba, Banda, Chitrakut Dham in Uttar Pradesh and Chhatarpur in Madhya Pradesh.
• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) also approved 116.95 km-long Bhatni-Aurnihar line doubling-cum-electrification at a cost of ₹1,300.9 crore.
• Likely to be completed by 2021-22, it will cover the districts of Deoria, Ballia, Mau and Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh.
• The CCEA also gave its approval to the construction of 4.5 km-long two-lane bi-directional Silkyara Bend-Barkot Tunnel as part of ‘Chardham Mahamarg Pariyojana’. The construction period of the project is four years.

Boost to Malkangiri:

• At present, Malkangiri has no rail connectivity.
• The new line will provide infrastructure support for overall development and help combat left wing extremism.