India’s railways are set for a major transformation, thanks to a hefty ₹2,52,000 crore capital expenditure allocation in the Interim Budget FY 2024-25. This historic investment reflects the government’s “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas” commitment and aims to propel the nation’s economy while enhancing passenger comfort and safety.
The projects have been identified under the PM Gati Shakti for enabling multi-modal connectivity. They will improve logistics efficiency and reduce costs. The resultant decongestion of the high-traffic corridors will also help in improving the operations of passenger trains, resulting in safety and higher travel speed for passengers. Together with dedicated freight corridors, these three economic corridor programmes will accelerate our GDP growth and reduce logistic costs.

Forty thousand normal rail bogies will be converted to the Vande Bharat standards to enhance safety, convenience and comfort of passengers.

Three major economic railway corridor programs will be implemented. These are:

• Energy, Mineral and Cement Corridors
• Port Connectivity Corridors
• High Traffic Density Corridors

The projects have been identified under the PM Gati Shakti for enabling multi-modal connectivity. They will improve logistics efficiency and reduce cost.

The resultant decongestion of the high-traffic corridors will also help in improving operations of passenger trains, resulting in safety and higher travel speed for passengers. Together with dedicated freight corridors, these three economic corridor programmes will accelerate our GDP growth and reduce logistic costs.

After the Union Budget, while addressing a Press Meet organised at Rail Bhawan, the Minister of Railways, Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw said that he was thankful to the Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for allocating 2,52,000 cr. for capital expenditure for the FY 2024-25.

Shri Vaishnaw said ‘Ten years back, despite having a separate budget, the thought process was always to add new trains or extend a particular train but there was no focus on increasing capacity or improving safety but in the last ten years, Hon’ble Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has changed the paradigm and put entire focus on creating new capacity, getting new technology and prioritizing safety. As a result of this, in last ten years 26,000 km track has been added, ₹1,08,000 cr. has been invested in Safety System and Automatic train protection system (Kavach) has started, new generation of trains are being developed and many of them are already running and are very popular.’

The Minister of Railways further stated that ‘In this budget, a big focus has been put on creating additional capacity through three corridors. First is Energy, mineral and cement corridors which will help reduce pollution of roads and ensure reduction in cost of logistics. Second is port connectivity which will provide seamless connectivity to the ports through Railways in a multimodal ‘Gati Shakti’ way and third is ‘Amrit Chaturbhuj’ which will be akin to golden quadrilateral on Railway network on high density traffic routes. Overall, through these 3 corridors, about 40,000 km of new track will be laid which will significantly increase railway capacity and reduce pollution as railway can save up to 90% CO2 emissions in a cost effective manner. This will bring a big transformation in the country’s economy in an efficient, productive and sustainable manner.’

Talking about the second big announcement, the Minister said ‘The success of ‘Vande Bharat’ and ‘Amrit Bharat’ trains has led to the fact that now we can upgrade all the 40,000 conventional coaches. The work to increase capacity is happening on multiple fronts.

Last year we added 5,200 km of new tracks which is equivalent to entire rail network of Switzerland. This year we are adding 5,500 km. From 4 km per day in 2014, we are now adding about 15 km per day in new tracks. With the capital investment envisaged in today’s budget, we are at 2,52,000 cr. CAPEX for FY 2024-25. Current year, we have already achieved 82% of the CAPEX budget by the end of January 2024 which is significant. So, there is a clear focus on increasing capacity, passenger experience, and infrastructure. Hon’ble PM’s focus on Railways is very clear and it is helping bring more capacity and once these 3 corridors are completed we will have enough capacity to end the waiting list problem.”

Hon’ble Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, has lauded the Interim Budget as an inclusive and innovative Budget that carries the confidence of continuity and will empower all four pillars of ‘Viksit Bharat’ – youth, poor, women, and farmers. The Hon’ble Prime Minister said ‘In the Budget, it has been announced to manufacture 40,000 modern ‘Vande Bharat Standard’ coaches and induct them in regular passenger trains. This will enhance the experience of comfortable travel for millions of passengers on different railway routes across the country.’

As part of the strategy for ‘Amrit Kaal’, these three major economic railway corridor programmes have been identified under the PM Gati Shakti for enabling multi-modal connectivity. They will improve logistics efficiency and reduce cost. The resultant decongestion of the high-traffic corridors will also help in improving operations of passenger trains, resulting in safety and higher travel speed for passengers. Together with dedicated freight corridors, these three economic corridor programmes will accelerate GDP growth and reduce logistic costs.