New Delhi: The Railways has got an allocation of `65,837 crore and the highest ever outlay for capital expenditure amounting to `1.60 lakh crore from Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget.
Last year, the outlay for the railways was `1.48 lakh crore while the Budget allocation was `55,088 crore.
In the Budget, `7,255 crore has been allocated for construction of new lines, `2,200 crore for gauge conversion, `700 crore for doubling, `6,114.82 crore for rolling stock and `1,750 crore for signalling and telecom – the allocations have remained the same as in the interim Budget in February presented by the then Finance Minister Piyush Goyal.
Sitharaman said that railway infrastructure would need an investment of `50 lakh crore between 2018 and 2030 and proposed that a public private partnership (PPP) be used to unleash faster development and delivery of passenger freight services for railway projects to boost the connectivity.
“Railways will be encouraged to invest in suburban railways through special purpose vehicles (SPVs) and enhance metro rail network through PPPs,” she said.
The government envisions using rivers for cargo transportation, which will also decongest roads and railways, Sitharaman said.
Railway station modernisation will also be launched this year, she added.
Developing passenger amenities seem to be the focus of the government with the planned expenditure on that count being allocated `3,422.57 crore which is an additional outlay of around `1,000 crore for the comfort of rail users.
However, what will remain the Railways’ major headache would be its revenue expenditure which includes an estimated salary payout of `86,554.31 crore, about `14,000 crore more than last year.
The Budget estimates also allocated `267.64 crore for Nirbhaya Fund including provision of `250 crore for Integrated Emergency Response Management System (IERM) (Video Surveillance System) and `17.64 crore for Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd. Estimates under Gross Traffic Receipts for the year 2019-20 have been placed at `2,16,675 crore involving an increase of `19,961 crore over the Revised Estimates 2018-19.
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