Centre inaugurates three rail projects in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh

The government has inaugurated three rail projects in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. The first is the New Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Nagar-New Bhaupur rail section of the dedicated freight corridor project (western corridor), developed at a cost of Rs 10.9 billion. The larger project involves the development of a 1,504 km long heavy haul freight corridor of double line electric (2×25 kV) tracks in Haryana, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, with an investment of Rs 511.01 billion. It is being developed in three phases: Vadodara-Rewari (Phase I), Vadodara-Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) (Phase II) and Rewari-Dadri (Phase III). The second is the Ballia-Ghazipur city rail line doubling project, which involved the doubling of a 65.1 km long railway line from chainage 65.7 km to 86 km in Ballia district and from chainage 86 km to 129.3 km in Ghazipur district in Uttar Pradesh. The third is the Indara-Dohrighat gauge conversion project, which involved the conversion of the existing 35 km long metre gauge Indara-Dohrighat rail line in Uttar Pradesh into a BG line with an investment of Rs 2.13 billion, covering two major and 28 minor bridges, and 24 railway level crossings.