The Indian Railways, the second biggest public transport system in the world is in for a huge makeover if one is to go by the announcements in the Union budget here on Monday.
Hit by major financial losses due to the pandemic, and probably for the first time in such a large scale, the behemoth is now looking to scale up.
The Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced Rs 63,000 crore fund for Chennai Metro line apart from a slew of announcements. This year, the focus is not only expansion and privatization but also going green. By the end of the year, the Indian railway is looking to finalise bids for 150 private trains.
Highlights
• 1,10,055 crore for Indian Railways
• Rs 1, 07, 100 crore is for capital expenditure
• Eastern and Western freight corridors to be commissioned by 2022
• Few freight corridor assets will be monetized for operations and maintainence once they are commissioned
• The Sonnagar-Gomoh section of the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor will be taken up in PPP mode in 2021-22. This section is 263.7 km long
• The Gomoh-Dankuni section of 274.3 km would be taken up in short succession
The focus is also on giving a leg up to Tejas Express, wi-fi facilities, better connectivity to tourist sites, solar power capacity to fuel the rail network.
Notably, the Union Budget went paperless for the first time since Independence, due to COVID-19 pandemic. Every year, the Union Budget is printed in the finance ministry’s in house press, involving nearly 100 employees who have to stay together for nearly a fortnight till the time the papers are printed, sealed and delivered on the day of the Budget.
