New Delhi. Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told the Lok Sabha that a total of 68 projects to create railway infrastructure are currently underway in various stages in Uttar Pradesh. As of April 1, plans for some of these are underway. Some others have been approved while the rest of the rail projects are under construction.

Vaishnav, in response to a question asked by BJP MP Arun Kumar Sagar, said that under these railway projects, 16 new railway lines are being laid in Uttar Pradesh. Gauges of three of these are being changed and doubling of railway lines is being done in 49 projects. Under these projects, a total of 5,874 km long line has been laid in Uttar Pradesh so far at a cost of Rs 92,001 crore.

So far, only 1313 km long railway line has been commissioned at a cost of Rs 28,366 crore. He said that the survey of the new Farrukhabad-Mailani via Alaganj, Pawayan, Khutar railway line (158 km) was completed in 2018-19 itself. But due to low traffic estimates, the work could not be taken forward yet.

The Railway Minister said that work is going on on 55 railway projects for construction of new railway lines, gauge conversion and doubling of railway tracks in Bihar. Till April 1, all these projects were in different stages. In response to a question by Lok Janshakti (Ram Vilas) MP Arun Bharti, Ashwini Vaishnav said that among these 55 railway projects, 31 are new lines, two are gauge conversion and 22 are doubling. These tracks will be laid in a total area of ​​5064 km, the cost of which will be Rs 79,356 crore.

He said that a total of 102 Vande Bharat trains are running in the country, out of which 16 are meeting the needs of the people of Maharashtra. Apart from this, a new service Vande Bharat Express service is also to be started.

11 lakh passengers affected due to flight delays

Minister of State for Civil Aviation Murlidhar Mohol told the Lok Sabha that till May this year, 11 lakh air passengers have been affected due to delay in flights of various airlines. The airlines have spent about Rs 13 crore to provide facilities to these passengers. Whereas in the year 2023, 22.51 lakh passengers were affected due to delay in flights and Rs 26.53 crore was spent to compensate for this.

More than 23,800 people have property ownership rights in Delhi

Under the Pradhan Mantri-Unauthorized Colony Delhi Housing Rights Scheme (PM-UDAY), 23,811 people have got ownership rights on properties in the capital Delhi till July 16 this year. In response to a question, Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Tokhan Sahu said that 1,22,729 applications have been received under the Delhi Development Authority (DDA). Sahu said that according to DDA, Rs 2,173.81 crore has been released from the Urban Development Fund in the last five years.