Rail projects stuck over land acquisition in Punjab: Ashwini Vaishnaw

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday blamed the AAP-led Punjab Government for delays in key railway infrastructure projects in the state, citing delay in land acquisition for the purpose.

“The Centre is geared up to execute projects, but success depends upon the support of the Government of Punjab,” Vaishnaw said.

In a written reply in the Lok Sabha, he said multiple projects were either stalled or had failed to take off in Punjab despite budgetary allocations and approvals being in place, due to land acquisition bottlenecks at the state level.

Referring to the Firozpur-Patti new line project, he said the 26-km stretch, located entirely within Punjab and close to the International Border, required 166 hectare land, but that had not been handed over to the Railways. Although the land award was issued in March 2023, disbursement of compensation was still pending with the state government, he added.

“The project is yet to take off due to delay in land acquisition by the state government,” Vaishnaw said.

Similar delays, he added, had impacted the Nangal Dam-Talwara new line, where only 189 out of 278 hectare had been acquired, and the Alal-Himmatana chord line, where no land had been handed over to the Railways so far.

Reiterating that the Centre was “geared up to execute projects”, the minister said timely progress hinged on state-level support for acquiring land and obtaining statutory clearances.

As of April 1, 2025, nine major railway projects, four new lines and five doubling works, covering 714 km and costing Rs 21,926 crore, have been sanctioned for Punjab. Of that, projects on only 115 km have been commissioned, with Rs 8,079 crore already spent till March 2025.

Vaishnaw informed the House that between 2009 and 2014, Punjab saw an average commissioning of 29.4 km of new railway tracks annually. This increased marginally to 35 km per year between 2014 and 2025.

However, he noted that the budget allocation for railway infrastructure and safety works in Punjab had gone up sharply, from Rs 225 crore per year during 2009-14 to Rs 5,421 crore in 2025-26, marking a 24-fold increase.

While projects such as the Rajpura-Bathinda and Jalandhar-Jammu Tawi doublings had been completed in recent years, several other sanctioned works remained in limbo, awaiting land or clearances.

Vaishnaw added that railway projects were sanctioned based on factors such as traffic projections, last-mile connectivity, socio-economic needs and operational requirements, but actual implementation depended significantly on state governments for timely land acquisition, forest and environmental clearances, cost-sharing arrangements and utility shifting.