New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's 90-minute budget speech on Tuesday did not mention any specific projects in the railways, as the government retained the allocation of Rs 2,55,393 crore as gross budgetary support for Railways it had announced in the interim Budget earlier this year.
There were speculations that the government might announce Production Linked Incentives (PLI) for manufacturing in railways, particularly regarding the high production pipeline of Vande Bharat trains, however, nothing related to it found mention in her speech.
It was speculated that the Budget for Railways in 2024-25 fiscal will give more importance to enhancing passenger capacity and improving safety, however there were no specific announcements around the same.
In the interim Budget this year, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had earmarked Rs 2,55,393 crore to the railways as gross budgetary support, supplemented by an additional Rs 10,000 crore sourced from extra-budgetary resources.
Railway Plans In The Pipeline
Earlier this month, the Indian Railways announced that it will manufacture 10,000 non-AC coaches over the next two fiscal years. “This initiative aims to enhance facilities for common railway passengers. In the next two years, the overall count of non-AC coaches will be increased by 22 per cent,” the Northern Railway said in a statement on July 9.
Giving a detailed breakup for the financial year 2024-25, the statement said that 2,605 general coaches, 1,470 non-AC sleeper coaches and 323 sitting-cum-luggage rake (SLR) coaches will be manufactured along with 32 high-capacity parcel vans and 55 pantry cars.
Similarly, the Railways said that in 2025-26, 2,710 general coaches, 1,910 non-AC sleeper coaches, 514 SLR coaches, 200 high-capacity parcel vans, and 110 pantry cars will be manufactured.
Apart from manufacturing non-AC coaches, the government also plans to implement three major economic railway corridor programmes and convert 40,000 normal railway bogies to Vande Bharat standards.
The three economic railway corridor programmes are: energy, mineral and cement corridors, port connectivity corridors, and high-traffic density corridors. The projects have been identified under PM Gati Shakti for enabling multi-modal connectivity.
The creation of new railway corridors will result in decongestion of high-traffic corridors and "will also help in improving operations of passenger trains, resulting in safety and higher travel speed for passengers", FM Nirmala Sitharaman had said in her interim Budget speech.
Rs 8.5k Cr Allocated For Western Railway Works
Earlier this year as the interim Budget was tabled, the Mumbai-headquartered Western Railway said Rs 8,587 crore was allocated for railway works on its network in Gujarat, which is 14 times the Rs 580 crore average annual outlay between 2009 and 2014.
Quoting Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Western Railway said the outlay for Madhya Pradesh is Rs 15,143 crore, which is 24 times the average outlay of Rs. 632 crore from 2009 to 2014.
Total investment of Rs 30,789 crore is being made in Gujarat, where 97 per cent of the route has been electrified and 856 road overbridges and road underbridges have been constructed in the last 10 years, the WR release said back in February.
As per the release, total gross outlay of Rs 18,093 crore has been made for the railway, which is an increase of 12 per cent when compared to 2023-24.
It said Rs 2662 crore will be made available for raising of speed to 160kmph/ 200 kmph on existing New Delhi-Mumbai route in order to achieve 12 hour travel time between the two mega cities.
A National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) official said a sum of Rs 25,000 crore has been allocated for the corporation, which is executing the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project, in the interim budget. This sum was Rs 18,592 crore in the last fiscal, the official added.
