Over 10,000 crores have been spent on the 110 kilometre Jiribam Imphal new railway line project in the state of Manipur.
This was revealed by the Railway Minister Piyush Goyal in a reply to a query in Lok Sabha.
Jiribam-Imphal project was included in the railway budget in 2003-04. Latest anticipated cost of the line is 12,264 crores and 10,089 crores have been spent up to March 2020. Rs 800 crores have been provided for the project in FY 2020-21, the minister stated.
12 km length from Jiribam to Vangaichungpao has been completed and commissioned in March 2017 and work has been taken up in the available land, according to the minister’s reply to Lok Sabha.
Minister Goyal also explained that Jiribam-Imphal new line project is a challenging project in the hilly terrain of the young Himalayas having 47 nos. tunnels, 156 nos. bridges including 141-metre high pier bridge etc. In addition, COVID-19 pandemic has also adversely affected the progress of the work at the site.
Firm completion time of the project cannot be ascertained at this stage, the minister’s reply stated.
Mining of 46 nos. tunnels out of total 47 tunnels have been completed. Mining of 47.40 km tunnel has been done during 2014-19, which is 110% more than tunnel mining done during 2009-14 (22.52 km).
5 out of 11 major bridges, 108 out of 128 minor bridges, 3 out of 5 Road Over Bridges (ROBs) and 2 out of 12 Road Under Bridges (RUBs) have been completed, the minister’s response further elaborated on the progress of the work done so far.