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. As such, firm completion time of the project cannot be ascertained at this stage
KRC TIMES Manipur Bureau
A Statement is laid on the table of the House of Parliamentary 4th Session of 17th Lok Sabha on 21.09.2020 in response to Unstarred Question No. 1701 to Ministry of Railway, Government of India. Dr. Ranjan Singh, in his unstarred question, he draws the attention of the Minister of Railways Piyush Goyal to state on part (a) the progress of ongoing crucial infrastructure project of 110 Km. long Jiribam-Imphal railway line as on date; (b) whether the deadline for completion of Jiribam-Imphal Railway project which was set as December 2020 has been postponed; and in part (c) if so, the reasons thereof?
In a Statement referred to in reply to Parts (a) to (c) of the unstarred Question No. 1707, Minister responded in written Statement as below:
(a): Jiribam-Imphal (110.625km) new line project has been included in Budget in 2003-04. The latest anticipated cost of the project is Rs. 12,264 crores. An expenditure of Rs.10,089 crore has been incurred up to March 2020 and an outlay of Rs. 800 crore has been provided for the financial year 2020-21.
12 km length from Jiribal to Vangaichungpao has been completed and commissioned in March 2017 and work has been taken up in the available land.
Mining of 46 nos. tunnels out of total 47 tunnels have been completed. Mining of 47.40 km 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.
(b) and (c): Completion of any Railway project depends on various factors like a quick land acquisition by State Government, forest clearance by officials of the forest department, shifting of infringing utilities, statutory clearances from various authorities, geological and topographical conditions of area, law and order situation in the area of the project site, number of working months in a year for a particular project site due to climate conditions etc. and all these factors differ from project to project and affect the completion time of the project.
