Thanks to the big allocation in Union Budget, Indian Railways is all set to expand faster, safer & comfortable rail travel for all across the country. 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 next two to three years time. Terming Union budget “amazing”, the Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw thanked Prime Minister and Union Finance Minister for allocating the big amount of 2,52,000 crore rupees for the financial year (FY) 2025-26 as gross budgetary support to Ministry of Railways, second time in row. The new trains & modern coaches will go a long way in serving the low & middle class people, he added.
Union Minister for Railways, Information and Broadcasting, electronic & IT, said that 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, budget allocates one lakh sixteen thousand crore rupees for expenditure in this year to augment the safety of Indian Railways through various projects. Talking to media in Rail Bhawan, after presentation of Union Budget in Lok Sabha, he said that it not only seeks to create employment by means of investment but gives a big relief to 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.
Reimbursement of losses on operation of strategic lines has been kept at 2739.18 crore in Budget Estimate 2025-26 as against 2602.81 crore in last fiscal’s Revised Estimates 2024-25. An amount of 706 crore is provided in this fiscal year towards debt servicing of market borrowings for National Projects. With this, the net revenue expenditure of Indian Railways is placed at Rs. 3,02,100 crore in this year’s Budget Estimate as against 2,79,000 crore in revised estimate of last fiscal. This fiscal’s gross budgetary support is almost 9 times of what it was only Rs. 28,174 cr. in 2013-14.
Talking to media, Union Minister said that 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, Railway Minister mentioned that India Railways will achieve 100 percent 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.
