Cabinet Approves ₹9,450 Crore Railway Projects

On 19 August 2026, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved four multi-tracking railway projects with an estimated cost of ₹9,450 crore. The projects cover eight districts in West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu, and they are linked to about 6,448 villages.

Multi-tracking in Indian Railways

Multi-tracking means adding one or more railway lines on an existing corridor. Indian Railways uses third and fourth lines on busy routes to separate traffic and to increase line capacity. The approved projects will add about 410 km to the railway network.

Approved Railway Corridors

The largest sanctioned project is the 173-km Kharagpur-Bhadrak (Ranital) fourth line across West Bengal and Odisha, with an estimated cost of ₹3,352 crore. Odisha received two more approvals, namely the 75-km Bhadrak-Haridaspur fourth line at ₹1,583 crore and the 72-km Cuttack-Paradeep (Badabandha) third and fourth lines at ₹2,286 crore. The fourth project is the 90-km Gummidipundi-Gudur third and fourth lines across Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, with an estimated cost of ₹2,229 crore.

Howrah-Chennai Route and Freight Movement

The upgraded lines will complete quadrupling on the high-density Howrah-Chennai trunk route. This route is one of the major rail corridors on the eastern coast of India and carries both passenger and freight traffic. The projects are linked with additional movement of coal, iron ore, cement, and foodgrains.

Important Facts for Exams

• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs is chaired by the Prime Minister of India.
• Indian Railways is one of the world’s largest railway networks under single management.
• Fourth lines are added on saturated routes to improve operational capacity.
• The Howrah-Chennai corridor connects major industrial and port-linked regions on the eastern coast.

Project Completion and Capacity

The Ministry of Railways has set a completion timeline of 2030-31 for the four projects. The expanded lines are projected to support an additional 76 million tonnes of annual freight traffic.