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The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by the Prime Minister, approved eight Ministry of Railways multitracking projects in two sets on 9 September 2026.
The first set of three projects costs Rs 10,783 crore and adds about 656 km across 14 districts of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
The second set of five projects costs Rs 10,021 crore and adds about 540 km across 17 districts of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana.
Together the eight projects mean roughly 1,196 km and about Rs 20,804 crore across 31 districts in nine states, with completion planned up to 2029-30.
All are planned on the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan and are expected to carry an additional 74 MTPA of freight — mainly coal, cement, iron and steel.
National Master Plan for Multi-Modal Connectivity — break inter-ministerial silos in infrastructure planning and cut logistics cost.
Key: A digital master-planning platform developed by BISAG-N (Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Applications and Geo-informatics) that brings more than 16 Central ministries and State governments onto one geospatial layer; it integrates Bharatmala, Sagarmala, UDAN and inland waterways. Implementation was approved by the CCEA on 21 October 2021.
Create rail capacity ahead of demand up to 2050 and raise the railways' share of the country's freight movement.
Key: Targets a rise in rail's freight modal share from about 27-29% to 45% by 2030, an increase in average freight train speed from 22 kmph to 50 kmph, and roughly a 30% cut in rail transport cost. The draft was issued in December 2020.
Segregate freight from passenger traffic on the busiest trunk routes so that both move faster.
Key: The Eastern DFC runs 1,337 km from Ludhiana to Sonnagar and the Western DFC 1,506 km from Dadri to JNPT — about 2,843 km together. Multitracking projects such as those approved here perform the same congestion-relief function on routes the DFC network does not cover.
Standing committee of the Union Cabinet that clears economic policy decisions and large capital investment proposals, including railway project approvals such as these
Plans, constructs and operates the Dedicated Freight Corridors; a special purpose vehicle under the Ministry of Railways
Set 1 sits on India's eastern coal-and-steel belt. Kharagpur-Jharsuguda lies on the Howrah-Nagpur-Mumbai trunk line in the South Eastern Railway zone, with Jharsuguda in Odisha a major coal junction. Katni-Pendra Road and Bilaspur (Uslapur)-Pendra Road lie on the Bilaspur-Katni line running through Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, skirting the Amarkantak hill range under South East Central and West Central Railway. Set 2 covers the southern peninsula: Arakkonam-Renigunta is the Southern Railway link on the busy Chennai-Tirupati pilgrimage corridor, while Secunderabad (Ghatkesar)-Kazipet in Telangana is part of the South Central Railway's Delhi-Chennai grand trunk route, Kazipet serving Warangal. Tourist sites the release names include Bandhavgarh and Achanakmar Tiger Reserves, Amarkantak, Tirupati, Kolar Gold Fields, Hogenakkal Falls and Sathyamangalam Wildlife Sanctuary.
GS Paper 3 > Infrastructure > Railways, Ports, Roads
General Awareness > Indian Railways and Current Affairs
Consider the following: 1. Areca nut 2. Barley 3. Coffee 4. Finger millet 5. Groundnut 6. Sesamum 7. Turmeric The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has announced the Minimum Support Price for which of the above?
Answer: 2, 4, 5 and 6 only
Adding a third or fourth line alongside an existing route to raise line capacity and separate slow freight from faster passenger traffic without building a new alignment.
Million Tonnes Per Annum — the unit used for incremental freight capacity; these eight projects add 74 MTPA in all.
The National Master Plan for Multi-Modal Connectivity launched on 13 October 2021, built on a BISAG-N geospatial platform linking over 16 ministries.