Imphal, September 21-2020: With the mining of 46 tunnels out of total 47 tunnels already completed, only one tunnel is left to be mined on the Jiribam-Imphal railway line.
Mining of tunnels having total length of 47.40 Kms has been done during 2014-19, which is 110% more than tunnel mining done during 2009-14 (22.52 km), Minister of Railways and Commerce & Industry Piyush Goyal said in a written reply to a question raised in the Lok Sabha today.
Jiribam-Imphal (110.625 km) new line project was included in the Union Budget in 2003-04 .
The latest anticipated cost of the project is Rs 12,264 crore.
An expenditure of Rs 10,089 crore has been incurred upto March, 2020 and an outlay of Rs 800 crore has been provided for the financial year 2020-21 .
A 12-km long section from Jiribam to Vangaichungpao was completed and commissioned in March, 2017.
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.
Completion of any railway project depends on various factors like quick land acquisition by State Government, forest clearance by officials of 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 project site, number of working months in a year for particular project site due to climatic conditions etc.
All these factors differ from project to project and affect the completion time of the project, Piyush Goyal said.
Jiribam-Imphal new line project is a challenging project in the hilly terrain of young Himalayas having 47 tunnels, 156 bridges including 141 metre high pier bridge etc.
In addition, COVID-19 pandemic has also adversely affected the progress of the work.
As such, completion time of the project cannot be ascertained at this stage, he added.