The Ministry of Railways has determined to begin the 58-km Kursela-Bihariganj New Line challenge, which falls within the Kosi-Seemanchal area of Bihar, 17 years after it was first introduced. In a written response to a query within the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, Minister for Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw mentioned that the challenge couldn’t be taken up earlier due to low site visitors projection.
“Kursela-Bihariganj (58 Km) New Line and Jalalgarh-Kishanganj (51.87 km) New Line tasks have been included within the Funds 2008-09. Nevertheless execution of those tasks couldn’t be taken up on account of low site visitors projections. Subsequently, a number of representations have been obtained to revive these two tasks and after sanction of Bikramshila-Katarea New Line challenge, Kursela-Bihariganj New Line has turn out to be an operational requirement. As such, it has been determined to take up these tasks,” mentioned Vaishnaw.
Officers mentioned that an allocation of Rs 170.8 crore has been supplied within the monetary yr 2025-26 for these tasks. The 26.23-km Bikramshila-Katreah challenge with a bridge over river Ganga was sanctioned in August 2024. The overall value of the challenge is Rs 2,549 crore. This challenge is within the neighborhood of Tejnarayanpur-Sahibganj (35 km) which couldn’t be taken ahead on account of low site visitors projections. The outlay for the challenge has been stored as Rs 64.05 crore in FY26.
Vaishnaw added {that a} survey for 92-km Bihariganj-Virpur by way of Murliganj, Triveniganj, Bhimnagar new line challenge has been taken up and area survey has been accomplished.
In response to a different query within the Lok Sabha, Union minister Vaishnaw mentioned a complete of eight surveys, protecting a size of 1,351 km, have been taken as much as enhance the connectivity in Bihar. This consists of Deen Dayal Upadhyay-Kiul third and fourth line, Chhapra-Katihar third and fourth line, Bihta-Aurangabad new line, Rampurhat-Dumka-Bhagalpur doubling, and Bakhtiyarpur-Tilaiya doubling, amongst others.
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