Overview
- The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, which met Saturday, approved third and fourth tracks on the Ghaziabad–Sitapur and Rajahmundry–Visakhapatnam sections at a combined cost of Rs 24,815 crore, adding about 601 km to the rail network.
- In Uttar Pradesh, the 403 km Ghaziabad–Sitapur project will cost Rs 14,926 crore and finish in about four years with six new bypass stations to skirt chokepoints at Hapur, Moradabad, Rampur, Bareilly, Shahjahanpur and Sitapur.
- In Andhra Pradesh, the 198 km Rajahmundry (Nidadavolu)–Visakhapatnam (Duvvada) project will cost Rs 9,889 crore, includes a 4.3 km rail bridge over the Godavari and targets roughly five years for completion while strengthening links to ports such as Visakhapatnam, Gangavaram, Kakinada and Machilipatnam.
- Both sections lie on high‑density trunk routes—Delhi–Guwahati in UP and Howrah–Chennai on the east coast—where capacity use has reached up to 168% and about 130%, causing frequent congestion and delays.
- Government estimates project sizable gains, including roughly 36 and 29 million tonnes of extra freight each year on the UP and AP stretches, annual logistics savings of about Rs 2,877 crore and Rs 1,151 crore, large CO2 reductions and construction employment measured in lakh human‑days.