New Delhi: The Railways received a budgetary allocation of Rs 65,837 crore and highest ever outlay for capital expenditure amounting to Rs 1.60 lakh crore in the Budget for the year 2019-20 presented on Friday, which includes a whopping 200 per cent increase in funds for passenger amenities.
"It is estimated that the railway infrastructure would need an investment of Rs. 50 lakh crores from 2018 to 2030. Given that the capital expenditure outlays of railways are around Rs.1.5 to 1.6 lakh crores per annum, completing even all sanctioned projects would take decades," Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said during presenting the full Budget on Friday.
The more than 8 per cent increase comes as the government emphasises on the infrastructure and that would need an investment of Rs 50 lakh crores between 2018 and 2030, the minister said. Further, a public-private partnership (PPP) is used to unleash faster development and delivery of passenger freight services for railway projects to boost the connectivity.
"I propose to enhance the metro-railway initiatives by encouraging more PPP initiatives and ensuring completion of sanctioned works while supporting transit-oriented development (TOD) to ensure commercial activity around transit hubs," the minister added.
Funds of Rs 7,255 crore have been allocated for construction of new lines, Rs 2,200 crore for gauge conversion, Rs 700 crore for doubling, Rs 6,114.82 crore for rolling stock and Rs 1,750 crore for signaling and telecom - the allocations have remained the same as in the interim budget in February presented by the then Finance Minister Piyush Goyal.
As a capital fund (CF), the government allocated Rs. 3000 crore for 2019-2020, which was missing in 2078-2019 Budget, presented by erstwhile finance minister Arun Jaitley. The budgetary support from the Nirbhaya fund has also provided Rs 267.64 crore this time to focus on the safety amenities. The railways has also planned to provide CCTV surveillance system at all stations (excluding halt stations) and in trains by using state-of-the-art video surveillance technology to enhance the safety of passengers. CCTV surveillance systems at 455 railway stations have been provided and the rest of the stations are targeted by 2020-21. Similarly, 1,203 coaches were equipped with CCTV surveillance system and rest passenger coaches are targeted by 2021-22.
The Depreciation Reserve Fund has got an increase of Rs. 466 crore. Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said his aim is to produce 100 high-speed modern world-class train sets i.e. "Vande Bharat", which will replace the Shatabdi and Rajdhani express trains in the near future. Redevelopment of 600 major railway stations have also been taken up which will improve passenger amenities at stations and turn them into world-class facilities with Wi-Fi, drinking water facilities, upgraded waiting rooms, television sets, passenger information kiosks and other such facilities, which was also mentioned in the economic survey- presented on Thursday.
The incumbent Modi government also aims to complete the dedicated freight corridor project by 2022 that will free up some of the existing railway networks for passenger trains. "To make railway travel a pleasant and satisfying experience for the common citizen, we will launch a massive programme of railway station modernization this year," the finance minister mentioned in her Budget speech.
Sitharaman further said that Indian Railways suburban and long-distance services do a phenomenal task in cities like Mumbai and smaller cities. Railways will be encouraged to invest more in suburban railways through Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) structures like Rapid Regional Transport System (RRTS) proposed on the Delhi-Meerut route.