The cost of the strategically important Dimapur-Kohima railway line has ballooned nearly eightfold to Rs 6,663.20 crore from its original sanctioned estimate of Rs 850 crore, with Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) attributing the massive escalation to deficient project planning, faulty surveys, irregular land acquisition, repeated design changes, weak contract management and avoidable procurement decisions.
In its 52nd Report tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, the committee said the cumulative failures had delayed rail connectivity to Nagaland for years and exposed systemic weaknesses in the execution of infrastructure projects in difficult terrain.
The report, based on observations of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) contained in Report No. 35 of 2022 on the Ministry of Railways, examined the execution of the 78.42-km broad-gauge line connecting Dhansiri near Dimapur with Zubza near Kohima.
Sanctioned in 2006-07, the project was expected to provide Nagaland with all-weather rail connectivity and improve freight movement and passenger transport in a state that currently has only 11.13 km of broad-gauge railway network.
The PAC said the project’s cost had risen through successive revisions to Rs 6,663.20 crore by May 2022, while physical progress remained below 25 per cent during the audit period. It identified a chain of deficiencies beginning with inadequate project preparation and extending through execution, land acquisition, engineering design and contract administration.
Among the most significant lapses cited was the failure of the original Final Location Survey undertaken by RITES at a cost of about Rs 7 crore.
The survey, the committee said, failed to adequately capture the complexities of the Neo-Himalayan terrain, forcing the Railways to abandon the alignment and commission a fresh survey by Spanish consultant AYESA using Digital Terrain Modelling and Digital Elevation Modelling technologies.
The audit estimated that Rs 5.44 crore spent on the earlier survey had become infructuous.
Calling the episode symptomatic of poor project preparation, the committee recommended that railway projects in hilly and geologically fragile regions should mandatorily use LiDAR surveys, drone mapping, satellite imagery, GIS-based modelling and independent technical validation before alignments are finalised.
The report also highlighted land acquisition as a major contributor to the project’s spiralling costs.
Audit findings pointed to infructuous expenditure of Rs 141.70 crore arising from acquisition of land on alignments that were later altered, procurement of land over tunnel stretches where surface acquisition was unnecessary, excess acquisition beyond prescribed limits, additional compensation following re-surveys and payment of establishment charges at rates higher than those permitted under Railway codal provisions.
The PAC noted that Rs 23.34 crore was spent acquiring 57.5 hectares of land based on an alignment that was subsequently abandoned, while Rs 79.70 crore was incurred on acquiring land over tunnel sections.
Another Rs 12.97 crore was spent on excess acquisition beyond codal requirements, Rs 6.97 crore on additional compensation after reclassification of land, and Rs 18.72 crore on establishment charges after the Nagaland government levied 8 per cent instead of the prescribed 4 per cent.
The committee expressed concern that no accountability had been fixed for the irregularities and urged the Railways to take up the issue with the state government at the highest level and seek the intervention of the Ministry of Home Affairs, if required.
The committee also questioned engineering decisions relating to the project’s 20 tunnels. Citing the CAG, it said wider tunnel cross-sections and the adoption of flexible overhead electrification instead of a Rigid Overhead Conductor Rail System resulted in an estimated avoidable liability of Rs 879.05 crore.
The Ministry of Railways disputed the audit’s calculations, arguing that the comparison with metro tunnels was technically inappropriate because Indian Railways’ broad-gauge specifications and geological conditions required different designs.
Contract management also came under scrutiny. The PAC noted that signalling equipment worth Rs 11.44 crore was procured between 2017 and 2020 despite civil construction being less than one-fourth complete, leaving the material idle for years and reducing its effective service life. It further observed that contractors had been granted 42 extensions of time since 2015, leading to price variation payments of Rs 42.38 crore. The Railways attributed the delays to land disputes, local protests, landslides, road blockades, elections, the COVID-19 pandemic and repeated changes in project scope.
The Ministry informed the committee that the project has since been divided into three phases to expedite completion. The 16.2-km Dhansiri-Sukhovi section has already been commissioned.
The Sukhovi-Pherima section has achieved 84 per cent physical progress and is targeted for commissioning by March 2027, while the Pherima-Zubza section has reached 31 per cent physical progress and is scheduled for completion by December 2029. As of December 2025, four of the project’s eight stations, 15 of 30 major bridges, 138 of 150 minor bridges and seven of 20 tunnels had been completed.
Responding to the committee’s observations, the Ministry of Railways said the steep escalation in project cost was driven largely by unforeseen geological conditions, unstable hill slopes, extensive tunnelling, heavy monsoon damage, difficult terrain and inadequate geological information available during the initial surveys.
It said detailed project reports for new railway projects now incorporate advanced geological investigations, drone-based mapping, LiDAR, satellite imagery and GIS technologies to minimise execution risks and improve project planning.
Also Read: India’s Myanmar gateway is crumbling, and no one’s paying to fix it
You just read a story that took days to report. Help us keep our reporters on the ground in the Northeast.
Ad-free reading, support and keep important stories alive
Support once (any amount)
Scan to pay via UPI