Total planned capital expenditure for Railways of over Rs 2 lakh crore is highest ever

New Delhi [India], February 1 (ANI): Indian Railways now has the highest ever total planned capital expenditure of Rs. 2,15,058 crore this year with Rs 7,500 crore from internal resources, Rs 1,00,258 crore from extra-budgetary resources and Rs 1,07,100 crore for capital expenditure in the General Budget.
In a press release, the Ministry of Railways on Monday stated, "Indian Railways received a record outlay of Rs 1,10,055 crore, of which Rs 1,07,100 crore is for capital expenditure in the Union Budget 2021-22 presented in the Parliament today."
The Gross Budgetary allocation is Rs. 37,050 crores (53 per cent) higher than the previous budget of 2020-21. In spite of the COVID-19 pandemic, this is a remarkable vindication of the progress being made being undertaken infrastructure projects in Indian Railways.
With this increase in Capital Expenditure, Indian Railways will be the driver of the Indian economy. The thrust of Annual Plan 2021-22 is on infrastructure development, throughput enhancement, development of terminal facilities, augmentation of the speed of trains, signaling systems, improvement of passengers/users' amenities, safety works of a road over/under bridges etc.
National Projects of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and North Eastern region have been allocated the highest ever outlay of Rs 12,985 crores in budget 21-22 against the RE 20-21 of Rs 7535 crore i.e. increase of 72 per cent.
Rs.37,270 crore of gross budgetary support (GBS) allocated for investment in Public Sector Undertakings / Joint Ventures /Special Purpose Vehicles with allocation for Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited (DFCCIL) of Rs. 16,086 crore, National High-Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) of Rs. 14,000 crores and Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation Limited (KMRCL) of Rs. 900 crore.
Intense monitoring, better management and engagement with all the stakeholders is ensuring that work is going on at unprecedented speed at the project sites now.
Some projects will be commissioned by March 2021 are Redevelopment of Gandhinagar and Habibganj stations, Ahmedabad-Botad Gauge Conversion (170 km), Pilibhit- Shahjahanpur Gauge Conversion (83 km), Utretia-Raebarelli Doubling (66 km), Ghazipur-Aunihar Doubling (40 km), Ajmer- Bengurgram Doubling (47 km), and Nirmali-Sairagarh New Line including Kosi bridge (22 km).
Key Railway Electrification projects that are also expected to be completed by March 2021 include Mumbai - Abu Road, Mumbai-Ratnagiri, Howrah-New Cooch Behar section via Malda, Connectivity to Pipava Port, Ratlam/Mathura-Jaipur and Pune-Satara, Sonipat-Jind.
Indian Railways has prepared a National Rail Plan (NRP) for India-2030. This will be for future-ready Railways, wherein infrastructure will be created by 2030, which shall be able to cater to the demand till 2050. NRP which identifies demand and required capacity augmentation needed till 2030 also lays focus on retrieving the modal share for IR to the level of 45 per cent by 2050 with the ultimate aim to reduce the logistic cost of the economy. (ANI)