NEW DELHI: Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday said projects and works
would get a major boost with the highest-ever capital outlay of Rs 2.41 lakh crore provided to his ministry for the financial year of 2023-24.
The minister said the railways would work on creating many economic corridors with the grants allotted from the capital outlay. “With ample capital outlay, the Indian Railways will develop many corridors such as energy, green, hill, and cement corridors for quicker services to the passengers.
“The railways will also get support for creating 5 new tourist circuits in the country,” the minister said, adding the production of Vande Bharat trains will get ramped up in 2023 from four manufacturing units, including the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai.
“The railways has invested heavily in upgrading and expanding its network. The railway outlay was only Rs 53,989 crore in 2014. It has now gone up to Rs 1,90,267 crore in FY 2022,” the minister said. Outlining the priority of capital outlay, the minister said the net revenue expenditure of the railways is placed at Rs 2,65,000 crore in the Budget Estimate (BE) 2023-24 as against Rs 2,42,892.77 crore in Revised Estimate (RE) 2022-23.
“Hydrogen train is another example of self-reliant India, which is included in the theme of green growth in the Budget. We’ll be ready with a hydrogen train by December 2023,” he said. “The increased outlay will give enough momentum to projects for redeveloping 1,027 railway stations,” said the minister.
