NATIONAL AVERAGE OF RAIL ROUTE KILOMETRES
The national average
of railway route kilometres per 1000 square kilometers of area
is 19.22 as on March 31, 2002.
At present, Indian
Railways have over 63,000 route kilometers with more than 14,000
daily trains. The distance covered by trains per day is four times
the distance between earth and moon with a total population of
46 countries travelling dailyby trains. Besides, Indian Railways
carry over 13 million passengers and 14 million tonnes of freight
daily.
The states, which
are below national average of route kilometers per 1000 square
kilometers of area are Andhra Pradesh 18.89, Arunachal Pradesh
0.02 square kilometers of area, Chhatisgarh 8.73 square kilometers
of area, Goa 18.72 square kilometers of area, Himachal Pradesh
4.83 square kilometers of area, Jammu and Kashmir 0.43 square
kilometers of area, Karnataka 15.51 square kilometers of area,
Madhya Pradesh 15.73 square kilometers of area, Maharashtra 17.74
square kilometers of area, Manipur 0.06 square kilometers of area,
Meghalaya nil, Mizoram 0.07 square kilometers of area, Nagaland
0.78 square kilometers of area, Orissa 14.90 square kilometers
of area, Rajasthan 17.22 square kilometers of area, Sikkim nil,
Tripura 4.25 square kilometers of area and Uttaranchal 6.65 square
kilometers of area.
Several new line
projects are in progress in various states. However, there is
no policy to bring all states at par with the national average
in terms of route length per 1000 square kilometers of area.
