Rs 1 lakh crore of farm budget surrendered in five years: Congress
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From 2018-19 to 2022-23, a gross expenditure of Rs 1,05,378 crore has been incurred on Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh (RRSK) works, the Ministry of Railways said on Friday.
This includes Rs 65,000 crore from Gross Budgetary Support (GBS) and a balance of Rs 40,378 crore from internal and extra budgetary resources by the Ministry of Railways.
The total expenditure of Rs 1,22,865 crore is funded to the extent of Rs 78,501 crore from Gross Budgetary Support and balance from Internal Generation and Extra Budgetary Resources of the Ministry of Railways. The outlay for Budget Estimate (BE) 2023-24 is Rs 29,325 crore.
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The information was given by Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha.
The Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh was introduced in 2017-18 for renewal/replacement/
Currency of the fund has been extended for another five-year term from 2022-23 with Gross Budgetary Support of Rs 45,000 crore.
The capital expenditure on replacement of track is captured under Plan head 31-Track Renewals while the expenditure on replacement of coaching stock is included in Plan head 21-Rolling Stock.
The outlay in BE 2023-24 is Rs 17,297 crore for PH-31 Track Renewals and Rs 2,000 crore for PH-21 Rolling Stock.
Replacement of railway assets viz. railway track, bridges, locomotives, wagons & signalling equipment is a continuous process, which is taken up on age-cum-condition basis under the codal life provisions.
Regular inspection of railway assets is carried out to ensure their fitness for service. Obsolete railway assets are condemned and replaced with new technology on age-cum-condition basis, the Minister said.
The Indian Railways has implemented an advanced technology system, ‘Kavach’, as an Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system.
Kavach is an indigenously developed ATP system which is a highly technology intensive system, which requires safety certification of the highest order.
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