Indian Railways has generated 10,66,246 mandays of work till Friday under Garib Kalyan Rozgar Abhiyaan in six- States, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

 Minister of Railways Piyush Goyal is closely monitoring the progress made in these projects and generation of work opportunities for the migrant labours of these states under this scheme. Around 164 Railway infrastructure projects are being executed in these states.

Till Friday 25th September, 12,276 workers have been engaged in this Abhiyaan and the payment of over Rs. 2,190 crore has been released to the contractors for the projects being implemented.

Railway has appointed nodal officers in each district as well as in the States so that a close coordination is established with the State Government.

Railway has identified number of Railway works which are being executed under this scheme.

The works are related to construction and maintenance of approach roads for level crossings, development & cleaning of silted waterways, trenches and drains along the track, construction and maintenance of approach road to railway stations, repair and widening of existing railway embankments or cuttings, plantation of trees at extreme boundary of railway land and protection works of existing embankments or cuttings or bridges.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched a massive employment -cum- rural public works campaign named Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan to empower and provide livelihood opportunities in areas or villages witnessing large number of returnee migrant workers affected by the devastating COVID-19 on 20th June this year.

The Prime Minister announced that an amount of Rs. 50 thousand crore would be spent for building durable rural infrastructure under the Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan.

This Abhiyaan of 125 days is being undertaken in mission mode and involves focused implementation of 25 categories of works or activities in 116 districts each with a large concentration of returnee migrant workers in 6 states.

The Abhiyaan is a convergent effort between 12 different Ministries or Departments to expedite implementation of 25 public infrastructure works and works relating to augmentation of livelihood opportunities.

These Ministries or Departments are Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Road Transport and Highways, Mines, Drinking Water and Sanitation, Environment, Railways, Petroleum and Natural Gas, New and Renewable Energy, Border Roads, Telecom and Agriculture.