Indian Railways (IR) has embarked upon a major electrification program to electrify its Broad Gauge (BG) network on Mission mode. Indian Railways has a total Broad Gauge (BG) network of 64,689 Route kilometer (RKM) including 740 RKM of Konkan Railway.
- Out of these 45,881 RKM i.e. about 71% has already been electrified till 31.03.2021.
- Electrification work is in progress under different stages of planning/execution on balance BG routes of IR, which are being electrified expeditiously.
- During 2020-21, 6,015 RKMs have been electrified against the target of 6,000 RKM.
- Funds to the Railway Electrification projects are allocated project wise, not Zone wise.
- However, Budget allocation and expenditure for the Railway Electrification projects for the Indian Railways during the last five years and current year is as under:-
| Year | Budget Allocation (Rs. Crore) | Expenditure (Rs. Crore) |
| 2016-17 | 3,396 | 2,956 |
| 2017-18 | 3,457 | 3,837 |
| 2018-19 | 6,302 | 5,955 |
| 2019-20 | 6,960 | 7,145 |
| 2020-21 | 6,326 | 6,141 |
- To complete the projects in time, various steps have been taken which include among others award of large size Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) contracts, better project monitoring mechanism, assured/committed funds through ‘Extra Budgetary Resource’ (Institutional Finance), decentralization of powers to field units etc.
Electrification of remaining Broad Gauge rail lines:
Significant progress has already been made in this regard and IR is likely to electrify all BG rail lines by 2023-24.
- As on 01.04.2021, 484 Railway projects of 51,165 km length, costing approx. Rs. 7.54 lakh crore are in different stages of planning/sanction/execution, out of which 10,638 km length has been commissioned and an expenditure of Rs. 2,13,815 crore has been incurred upto March, 2021. These include:-
- 187 New line projects of 21,037 km length, costing Rs. 4,04,986 crore, out of which commissioning of 2,621 km length has been achieved and expenditure of Rs. 1,05,591 crore has been incurred upto March, 2021.
- 46 Gauge Conversion projects of 6,213 km length, costing Rs. 53,171 crore, out of which commissioning of 3,587 km length has been achieved and expenditure of Rs. 22,184 crore has been incurred upto March, 2021.
- 251 Doubling projects of 23,915 km length, costing Rs. 2,96,186 crore, out of which commissioning of 4,430 km length has been achieved and expenditure of Rs. 86,041 crore has been incurred upto March, 2021.
- Completion of a Railway project(s) depends on various factors like expeditious land acquisition by State Government, forest clearance by officials of forest department, shifting of infringing utilities, statutory clearances from various authorities, geological and topographical conditions of area, law and order situation in the area of project site, number of working months in a year for particular project site due to climatic conditions etc. and all these factors affect the completion time.
- Zone-wise total BG Route kilometers (RKM), electrified BG RKM & balance BG RKM to be electrified as on 31.03.2021 is as under:-
| SN | Railway | Total Broad Gauge (BG) Route Km | Electrified BG Route Km | Balance BG Route Km to be electrified |
| 1 | Central | 3,853 | 3,336 | 517 |
| 2 | East Coast | 2,800 | 2,791 | 9 |
| 3 | East central | 4,008 | 3,540 | 468 |
| 4 | Eastern | 2,820 | 2,490 | 330 |
| 5 | North Central | 3,222 | 2,707 | 515 |
| 6 | North Eastern | 3,102 | 2,299 | 803 |
| 7 | Northeast Frontier | 4,152 | 652 | 3,500 |
| 8 | Northern | 7,062 | 5,512 | 1,550 |
| 9 | North Western | 5,248 | 2,186 | 3,062 |
| 10 | South Central | 6,206 | 4,145 | 2,061 |
| 11 | South East Central | 2,348 | 2,120 | 228 |
| 12 | South Eastern | 2,713 | 2,661 | 52 |
| 13 | Southern | 4,914 | 3,570 | 1,344 |
| 14 | South Western | 3,578 | 1,208 | 2,370 |
| 15 | West Central | 3,011 | 3,011 | 0 |
| 16 | Western | 4,885 | 3,183 | 1,702 |
| 17 | Kolkata Metro | 27 | 27 | 0 |
| 18 | Konkan | 740 | 443 | 297 |
| Total | 64,689 | 45,881 | 18,808 |
- About Rs. 21,000 crores are estimated to be incurred on electrification of balance Broad Gauge routes of Indian Railways.
- Indian Railways annual consumption of Electricity for traction purpose is about 18.41 Billion Units during 2019-20 and 14.1 Billion Units during 2020-21.
- The estimated electricity consumption after complete electrification of Railway tracks shall be 30.13 Billion Units.
- This information was given by the Minister of Railways, Communications and Electronic & Information Technology, Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha on 30th July 21.
Source: PIB-Press Release | Image Credit (representational): MoR
