Railways infrastructure needs Rs 50 lakh crore till 2030: Nirmala Sitharaman

New Delhi: While saying that Railways infrastructure would need an investment of Rs 50 lakh crore between 2018 and 2030, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman allocated Rs 1,60,176 crore as the capital expenditure outlay for 2019-20 as she presented her maiden Budget in Parliament on Friday. This capex allocation is 20 per cent higher than the previous year while the total budgetary allocation of the Railways is Rs 65,837 crore in the Budget.

“It is estimated that Railways Infrastructure would need an investment of 50 lakh crore between 2018-2030. Given that the capital expenditure outlays of Railways are around 1.5 to 1.6 lakh crore per annum, completing even all sanctioned projects would take decades. It is therefore proposed to use public-private partnership to unleash faster development and completion of tracks, rolling stock manufacturing and delivery of passenger freight services,” Ms Sitharaman said in her Budget speech.

Last year, the outlay for the Railways was Rs 1.48 lakh crore while the Budget allocation was Rs 55,088 crore. However, this time dedicated freight corridors (DFC), safety measures, modernization and electrification have been the focus areas. “The DFC would mitigate the congestion of our railway network benefitting the common man,” the minister said. She added that inland waterways needed to be developed to shift a significant portion of inland cargo movement from road and rail to decongest them.

The present Railway Budget largely has the same provisions as those made in the Interim Budget by the then finance minister Piyush Goyal. Accordingly, 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 signalling and telecom.

Ms Sitharaman proposed 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.

“We are in the process of completing the dedicated freight corridor project that will free up some of the existing railway network for passenger trains,” she said.