Railways to invest Rs 80,000 cr in laying track in next 3 yrs

Focusing on rail network expansion, Railways will increase the pace of laying new track to 19 km per day from the current 7.8 km which will likely generate Rs 80,000 crore business in the procurement of cement, steel and cable among others in the next three years.
Besides, the Railways will use drones to monitor the progress of the track laying work.
"Currently, we are laying the 7.8 km track per day and it will go up to 13 km per day next year. Our target is to reach 19 km per day in the fiscal 2018-19," Railway Board Member (Engineering) VK Gupta said here today.

Expansion of rail network is a major thrust for Railways as the public transporter is facing an acute congestion due to the limited line capacity, he said.
Railways has laid 1,983-km-long track in 2014-15 and it increased to 2,828 km in the next year.
There will be total 2,900 km of track in the current year and it involves gauge conversion, doubling and also laying new rail connecting new areas, he said.

The capacity augmentation exercise also aims to boost the economy as it involves procurement of rail, cement, steel, engineering and signalling equipment.
He said earlier railways was facing fund constraint but now it has assured funds to execute projects.

Railways will be investing about Rs 80,000 crore in procurement of various ingredients like cement, steel, rail the next three years for laying tracks which will be a boost to the economy, he said.
In order to expedite the project execution, Railways has pressed drones into service to closely monitor the progress.
"Now, we are using drones to monitor the exact progress in our project execution and it has become a very effective monitoring tool," Gupta said.