Budget 2018: Rajasthan railway to chug on development track

Rajasthan has got a large share of rail infrastructure development. Though no announcement of any new rail line has been made, important projects like railway electrification will be implemented in the state. Out of 6000 rail km (rkm) of tracks which will be electrified, the budget has given almost 930 km’s in NWR region.

These include electrification of Ajmer Guriya route 94 rkm, Bhilwara mavli junction 120 rkm; Alwar Bhankhari 95 rkm; Jaipur Phulera 66 rkm; Sadulpur Shitalnagar halt 139 rkm and Jaipur Sawai Madhopur 131 rkm to name a few. This will increase the speed of the train and will help increase the number of trains on these routes.

Rajasthan has also got many rail doubling projects including Ajmer Mangaliyawas. Chabra Bhulon rail line will also be doubled along with Kota Sogaria. Not only these projects, Jaipur Govindgarh rail line has also been named in the budget for gauge conversion.

According to Tarun Jain, Chief PRO of NWR, investments have scaled up drastically by almost three times to Rs 1,48,528 cr in 2018-19 (BE) as against Rs 53,989 cr in 2013-14.

Sources inform that it will be in a day or two that exact and all the details which the NWR has been given in this budget will be known. However, it’s being anticipated that a large number of stations over 60 will get escalators. The budget announcement has been made for railway stations with more than 25000 footfall, which will have escalators. It’s also expected that many stations including Gandhi Nagar station Jaipur, Bandikui, Kishangarh etc will get more facilities.