Prime Minister’s flagship platform for Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation, PRAGATI, has marked a significant milestone with the successful conduct of its 50th meeting. Since its launch by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2015, PRAGATI has transformed governance by enabling real-time monitoring and resolution of key infrastructure projects and public grievances through direct Prime Ministerial review.
The platform exemplifies cooperative federalism, bringing together the Centre, States, and Union Ministries on a single digital interface. Over a decade, PRAGATI has helped accelerate decision-making, resolution of issues causing delay in key infrastructure projects, and instilled a strong culture of accountability. Today, in this special series, we take a look at the Mau – Ghazipur – Tarighat New Broad Gauge Railway Line in Uttar Pradesh.
The Mau – Ghazipur – Tarighat New Broad Gauge Railway Line, spanning 51 km across Uttar Pradesh, represents a transformative rail infrastructure initiative. It was sanctioned at a cost of one thousand 765 crore rupees. The objective was to enhance rail connectivity in eastern Uttar Pradesh, integrating remote and agrarian districts with the national railway network, and improving multimodal transport across the Ganga corridor. The project encountered significant execution challenges. It spanned land acquisition bottlenecks, funding and cost-sharing disputes, technical approvals, and material supply constraints, which collectively threatened timelines and continuity of works. The project was comprehensively reviewed by the Prime Minister in the PRAGATI platform on 26th September 2018.
Recognising the project’s strategic importance for eastern Uttar Pradesh and its inter-modal significance, clear, time-bound, and outcome-oriented directions were issued to address systemic bottlenecks. The Government of Uttar Pradesh was directed to expeditiously complete land acquisition and hand over all remaining parcels, leading district administrations in Mau and Ghazipur to fast-track notifications, joint surveys, compensation disbursement, and physical possession. To resolve funding constraints for the Rail-cum-Road Bridge, the Ministries of Railways, Road Transport and Highways were instructed to immediately reconcile cost-sharing and outstanding dues. These directives dismantled inter-agency silos, ensured fund flow, finalized technical designs, stabilized material supply chains through state facilitation, and restored construction pace across all fronts.
The project achieved 100 per cent physical completion and commissioning on 6th March 2024. The commissioning of the Mau – Ghazipur – Tarighat Broad Gauge line has delivered far-reaching socio-economic benefits to eastern Uttar Pradesh, fundamentally reshaping regional connectivity and economic integration.
