Cabinet approves ₹18,658 crore rail projects, ₹6,839 crore for border villages

New Delhi: The Union cabinet has approved four railway projects worth ₹18,658 crore and another ₹6,839 crore to develop villages on India’s borders with Pakistan and China.

The railway projects approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on Friday will expand Indian Railways’ network by 1,247 km across 15 districts in Maharashtra, Odisha, and Chhattisgarh.

The completion of these projects will improve connectivity for about 3,350 villages and 4.7 million people, besides providing direct links to areas like Baloda Bazar, a district in Chhattisgarh known for its cement plants.

The projects include construction of the third and fourth lines for the Sambalpur-Jarapda and Jharsuguda-Sason routes, the fifth and sixth lines for the Kharsia-Naya and Raipur-Parmalaksa routes, and doubling of lines on the Gondia–Balharshah route.

“The enhanced line capacity will improve mobility, providing enhanced efficiency and service reliability for Indian Railways,” the Union cabinet said in a statement. “These multi-tracking proposals will ease operations and reduce congestion, providing the much-required infrastructural development on the busiest sections across Indian Railways.”

‘Ensuring prosperous and safe borders’

The ₹6,839-crore Vibrant Villages Programme-II is chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and will be fully funded by the Union government.

“The objective of the programme is to create better living conditions and adequate livelihood opportunities to ensure prosperous and safe borders, control trans-border crime and assimilate the border population with the nation and inculcate them ‘as eyes and ears of the border guarding forces’, crucial for internal security,” the Union cabinet said in its statement.

The programme will focus on strategic villages in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tripura, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal between 2025-26 and 2028-29.

“The programme shall provide funds for infrastructure development within the village or a cluster of villages, value chain development (through cooperatives, SHGs, etc.), border-specific outreach activity, education infrastructure like SMART classes, development of tourism circuits and works/projects to create diverse & sustainable livelihood opportunities in the border areas,” the cabinet added.

Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union information and broadcasting minister, said a high-level committee under the chairmanship of the cabinet secretary will monitor and oversee the management of these projects.

“The high-level committee, which is empowered by the cabinet, will decide on any relaxation of norms required for the projects,” he added during a media briefing.