1,780 km rail lines commissioned; 6,000 km highways built in 2015-16

PM Narendra Modi reviewed the progress in the key infrastructure sectors of railways and roadways on Monday

The government has commissioned 1,780 km of rail lines and also completed over 6,000 km of highways in 2015-16 period, the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement on Monday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was reviewing the progress in the key infrastructure sectors of railways and roadways on Monday. The PMO said that 1,730 km of rail links have also been electrified in 2015-16.

In the course of the review of the railway sector, it was noted that it had received a capital investment of over Rs.93,000 crore in the last financial year.

"This represents a massive increase of 65% over the previous year, and is the highest-ever investment in railways in one year. The figures also represent the best performance on these metrics in railway history," the statement said.

It added that the prime minister has stressed the need to speed up the redevelopment of railway stations and has urged the ministry to upgrade and diversify the uses of its infrastructure.

In the meeting, Prime Minister Modi was informed that over 6,000 km of highways have been completed in 2015-16, while contracts for 10,098 km were awarded in the same period.

Modi has also stressed the need to decongest the critical highways by adopting latest technologies for toll collection.

He has asked the officials from the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to study various models of road development across the country and adopt the best practices so that more private investment can be brought into the highway construction sector.