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New Delhi, Jul 31 (PTI) The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved four projects of the railway ministry worth approximately Rs. 11,169 crore, an official release said on Thursday.

Talking about the expansion of rail network through these projects, the government said these four projects covering 13 districts across Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha and Jharkhand will increase the existing network of Indian Railways by about 574 km.

These new projects are a fourth line between Itarsi and Nagpur, doubling of railway line between Aurangabad (Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar) and Parbhani, construction of third and fourth line between Aluabari Road and New Jalpaiguri as well as Dangoaposi and Jaroli.

"The increased line capacity will significantly enhance mobility, resulting in improved operational efficiency and service reliability for Indian Railways. These multi-tracking proposals are poised to streamline operations and alleviate congestion," the release said.

According to the government, the projects are planned on PM-Gati Shakti National Master Plan with focus on enhancing multi-modal connectivity and logistic efficiency through integrated planning and stakeholder consultations as these projects will provide seamless connectivity for movement of people, goods, and services.

"The proposed multi-tracking project will enhance connectivity to approx. 2,309 villages, which are having a population of about 43.60 lakh," it said.

The government stated that these are essential routes for transportation of commodities such as coal, cement, clinker, gypsum, fly ash, containers, agriculture commodities, and petroleum products etc and the capacity augmentation works will result in additional freight traffic of magnitude 95.91 million tonnes per annum.

Highlighting their environmental benefits, the release said, "The Railways being environment friendly and energy efficient mode of transportation, will help both in achieving climate goals and minimizing logistics cost of the country, reduce oil import (16 crore litres) and lower CO2 emissions (515 crore kg) which is equivalent to plantation of 20 crore trees." 

(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)