Railway commissioning ₹50,000 cr projects in one year

Indian Railways is all set to commission a large number of projects worth ₹50,000 crore in the next one year. The projects include opening up of several stretches of the 3,300-km dedicated freight corridor, refurbishment and upgrading of around 70 railway stations, the launch of India's first indigenous semi high-speed train, installation of CCTV systems at all major stations and on-board 168 premium trains, said an official spokesperson, claiming that the list of deliverables are meant to be commissioned by April 2019. The tender to install around 5 lakh CCTV systems at all major railway stations is likely to be floated this month and the work would be completed within the next six months and the first semi high-speed train that would run at 160 km/h on select routes, would be tested on tracks by September, and is likely to start replacing the Shatabdi trains by next calendar year. The 1500-km western freight corridor runs from Dadri near Delhi to Jawahar Lal Nehru port trust in Mumbai and the 1800-km eastern corridor is from Ludhiana in Punjab to Dankuni in West Bengal. DFCC will be making 432 km part of western corridor and 343 km of eastern corridor operational by the end of current financial year. Along with all these initiatives, the ministry is also hoping to start construction of the India's first bullet train project – the 534-km Mumbai-Ahmedabad high speed corridor – by January next year.