Indian Railways to enhance connectivity with ₹3,169 crore doubling of Bhagalpur-Dumka-Rampurhat line

Ranchi: The cabinet committee on economic affairs chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday approved the doubling of Bhagalpur – Dumka - Rampurhat single railway line Section (177 km) in Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal with total cost of Rs.3,169 crore.“The enhanced line capacity will improve mobility, providing enhanced efficiency and service reliability for Indian Railways," PIB said in a statement.The multi-tracking proposal will ease operations and reduce congestion, providing the much-required infrastructural development on the busiest sections across Indian Railways.“The projects are in line with the PM’s vision of a New India which will make people of the region “Atmanirbhar” by way of comprehensive development in the area which will enhance their employment/ self-employment opportunities," it added in a statement.The projects are planned on PM-Gati Shakti National Master Plan with focus on enhancing multi-modal connectivity & logistic efficiency through integrated planning and stakeholder consultations. These projects will provide seamless connectivity for movement of people, goods, and services.The project covering five districts in three states i.e. Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal will increase the existing network of Indian Railways by about 177 km.Once ready, it will provide rail connectivity to prominent destinations such as Deoghar (Baba Baidyanath Dham), Tarapith (Shakti Peeth) etc, attracting pilgrims and tourists from across the country.“Multi-tracking projects will enhance connectivity to approx 441 villages and about 28.72 lakh population and three aspirational districts (Banka, Godda and Dumka),” PIB said, adding that this is also an essential route for transportation of commodities such as coal, cement, fertilizers, bricks and stones etc.The capacity augmentation works will result in additional freight traffic of magnitude 15 MTPA (million tonne 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 (5 crore litres) and lower CO2 emissions (24 crore kg) which is equivalent to plantation of 1 crore trees.