Union Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Saturday thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for allocating the big amount of Rs 2,52,000 crore for the financial year (FY) 2025-26 as gross budgetary support to the Ministry of Railways, second time in a row.
The Budget was presented by the Finance Minister in Parliament earlier in the day.
“Transformative Budget! A monumental outlay of Rs 2,52,200 crore has been allocated to the Railways, accelerating growth and efficiency,” the Ministry of Railways said in a tweet.
Terming the Budget “amazing”, Vaishnaw said, “Thanks to the big allocation in the Union Budget, Indian Railways is all set to expand faster, safer and comfortable rail travel for all across the country.”
He said the country can expect 200 new Vande Bharat trains,100 Amrit Bharat trains, 50 Namo Bharat rapid rail and 17,500 general non AC coaches in the next two to three years.
The new trains and modern coaches will go a long way in serving the low & middle class people, the Minister added. Vaishnaw said the Union Budget is a roadmap for Viksit Bharat.
“This year’s Budget mentions infrastructure development projects of railways to the order of four lakh sixty thousand crore rupees. Focusing on safety, the budget allocates one lakh sixteen thousand crore rupees for expenditure in this year to augment the safety of Indian Railways through various projects,” he said.
Talking to media in Rail Bhawan after the presentation of the Union Budget in Lok Sabha, Vaishnaw said that it not only seeks to create employment by means of investment but gives a big relief to the middle class with reduced income tax burden.
Earlier, Government, besides allocating Indian Railways, same allocation of Rs 2,52,000 crore as was done in last fiscal year, also provided for Rs 10,000 crore from extra budgetary resources to meet its expenses & modernize it, thus taking the Capital Expenditure, Capex to Rs 2,62,000 crore.
This means expenditure on assets, acquisition, construction and replacement will be met out of funds from not only Gross Budgetary Support (including Railway Safety Fund and Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh), but the General Revenues of Indian Railways. Provision of Rs 200 crore out of Nirbhaya Fund is also there in the budget. Railways will mobilize additional Rs 3,000 crore rupees from its internal resources.
Talking to media, the Union Minister said Indian Railways is all set to become the second highest freight carrying Railway, touching 1.6 billion tonnes of cargo by the end of this fiscal.
On the high speed trains, he said India aims to have 7000 km of high speed rail network supporting the speed of 250 km per hour by 2047. Talking about sustainability, he mentioned that India Railways will achieve 100 per cent electrification by the end of FY 2025-26. Besides as the Budget announced Small Modular reactors as a source of non fossil energy, Indian Railways will take lead in our electrification efforts.