Mumbai: Indian Railways is likely to invest about Rs20,000 crore for conversion of 5,500km of rail track into broad gauge in the coming years.

"We have decided to convert 5,500km of rail track into broad gauge," union railway minister Laloo Prasad today said in Katwa, West Bengal at the foundation-stone laying ceremony for the conversion of the Katwa-Burdwan line into broad gauge.

The standard cost of conversion of one kilometre of railway track into broad gauge is estimated at Rs3 crore. However, he did not divulge the time required for the completion of the gauge conversion.

So far 13,000km — 9,000 km of meter gauge and 4,000 km narrow gauge — of railway tracks remain to be converted into broad gauge.

The railway minister said the conversion of the 51-km Katwa-Burdwan line into broad gauge would be completed by 2012.

The Railways and the West Bengal Power Development Corporation Limited will share the cost of the Rs 202-crore project equally.