Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman while announcing the Interim Union Budget said that 40,000 normal rail bogies will be upgraded to the standards of Vande Bharat bogies.
The minister also announced three major railway corridors including port connectivity corridor, energy, cement and mineral corridor and a high-traffic density corridor.
These corridors were identified under the PM Gati Shakti scheme to enable multi-modal connectivity. These corridors will reduce costs and improve efficiency, according to the finance minister.
A sum of Rs 2.55 lakh crore has been earmarked as capex for the Indian Railways for the financial year 2024-25, Nirmala Sitharaman announced.
In the Union Budget 2023-24, the Railways ministry had allocated a capital outlay of Rs 2.40 lakh crore. This was the highest-ever allocation ever to the national transporter.
The Key Highlights
The government announced the launch of three major economic railway corridor programs to alleviate congestion and reduce logistics costs, covering energy, mineral, and cement corridors, an expanded port connectivity corridor, and solutions for high-traffic density corridors.
Plans include upgrading of 40,000 regular coaches to Vande Bharat coaches
Union Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnav told news agency PTI, "PM Modi changed the entire strategy (for Railways) over the last 10 years, and now focus is being made on investment to modernise the Railways. For this year, the budget that has been allocated for the Railways is Rs 2.52 lakh crore."
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