New Delhi: The Railways has been allocated a ‘record’ Rs 1.10 lakh crore in the Union Budget. Out of it, Rs 1.07 lakh crore accounts for capital expenditure, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said Monday. While the allocation in 2021-22 has been termed as a ‘record’ for the the Railways, it had a slightly higher allocation of Rs 1.11 lakh crore in the revised budget of 2020-21.
The national carrier will monetise the upcoming ‘Dedicated Freight Corridor’ (DFC) assets for operations and maintenance after commissioning. The Indian Railways will have a National Rail Plan to create a ‘future ready’ Railway system by 2030, Sitharaman said. She also applauded the services provided by the Railways to transport essential goods across the country during the coronavirus lockdown.
“I am announcing a record sum of Rs 1,10,055 crore for Railways of which Rs 1,07,100 crore is for capital expenditure only,” she said.
Railway Board Chairman and CEO Suneet Sharma described Monday the Union Budget 2021-22 as ‘transformational’. He said for the national transporter the budget has focus on deliverance.
“This budget is a different budget altogether. It is a transformational budget, it is a future ready budget for railway, it is path breaking budget,” Sharma told mediapersons here. He added the focus of this budget is on deliverance, commitment to delivery, time schedule, focus on customers, focus on technology, induction to provide better services to customers, better passenger and freight services.
Sitharaman lauded the safety figures of the railways. She said the safety measures undertaken in the past few years have borne results. “To further strengthen this effort, high density network and highly utilised network routes of Indian Railways will be provided with an indigenously developed automatic train protection system that eliminates train collision due to human error,” she said.
Discussing the ‘National Rail Plan’ (NRP) mentioned by the finance minister in her budget speech, Sharma said it envisages the plan for Railways for 2050 for which the infrastructure needs to be prepared by 2030.
Sharma also said national projects of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and North Eastern region have been allocated the highest ever outlay of Rs 12,985 crore. He said the Budget Estimate of 2021-22, against the Revised Estimate of 2020-21 of Rs 7,535 crore, had an increase of 72 per cent.
Discussing the future plan of the Railways, the CEO said, “At least 150 more private trains through PPP mode, more Tejas trains, more vista dome coach trains for tourists, 3rd ac economy class coaches, SMART coaches which are providing more features like announcements, temperature control system and to check water levels, head on generation cars to make space for more coaches.” He informed that satellite-based tracking of trains with ISRO is already operational on 6,500 trains.
Future dedicated freight corridor projects namely East Coast corridor from Kharagpur to Vijayawada, East-West Corridor from Bhusaval to Kharagpur to Dankuni and North-South corridor from Itarsi to Vijayawada will be also be undertaken, Sitharaman said. She also said 100 per cent electrification of broad-gauge routes will be completed by December, 2023.