Cabinet Clears Eight Railway Multitracking Projects in Nine States

Indian Railways has won approval for eight capacity works in a single day. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), which the Prime Minister chairs, cleared them on 9 September 2026 in two separate decisions. Every one of the eight is a multitracking work, which means a third or fourth line is laid alongside an existing route, or a single line is doubled. All of them are to be finished by 2029-30.

The southern package

The first decision covers five projects costing about Rs 10,021 crore. They run through 17 districts of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana and add roughly 540 km of line.

The eastern and central package

The second decision covers three projects costing Rs 10,783 crore. These are the Kharagpur to Jharsuguda (Bagdehi) fourth line, the Katni to Pendra Road fourth line and the Bilaspur (Uslapur) to Pendra Road third line. They pass through 14 districts of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh and add about 656 km.

What the eight works deliver

The planning frame

Both packages were drawn up under the PM-Gati Shakti National Master Plan, whose purpose is multi-modal connectivity and cheaper logistics through joint planning. The emission saving of the southern package equals planting about 2 crore trees; the eastern package equals about 2.48 crore trees. The eastern routes are heavy freight corridors that carry coal, cement, iron and steel, while the southern routes will improve access to Tirupati, Kolar Gold Fields, Hogenakkal Falls, Mettur Dam and Kodaikanal.