Track renewal target for 2018-19 set at 3,900 km: Minister

The track renewal target has been set at 3,900 km for 2018-19, the government today informed Parliament, a day after a CAG report came down hard on the Railways for the poor condition of rail tracks.

In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Railways Rajen Gohain said that track renewal works are undertaken as and when a stretch of track becomes due for renewal as per the criteria laid down by railways.

The track renewal target has been set at 3,900 km for 2018-19, he said.

The minister also provided zone wise renewal goals and the actual renewal carried out till now.

In Central zone, while the target for renewal was 275 km, as of January 2018, actual renewal was 186 km.

For South Central, zone while 147 km was the target, it achieved 154 km of renewal.

South Western railway achieved 146 km of track renewal against a target of 170. The Southern Railway achieved 241 km of renewal as against the 406 km of set target.

Gohain also said that the Konkan Railway route track renewal works were not due.

He also pointed out that the railways had incurred an expenditure of Rs 6,540 crore in the year 2017-2018 in track renewal, while the expenditure a year earlier was Rs 6,397.97 crore.