Union Budget 2024: Allocations To Railway (image@RailMinIndia)
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was expected to make some major announcements for the Railway sector. However, she barely mentioned it during the budget speech, while the Economic Survey presented in the Parliament on Monday highlighted the achievements of the Indian Railway, including the upcoming Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train, Vande Bharat Express trains, among other things.
According to experts, for the first time ever, Railway is not included among the top 10 of the biggest beneficiaries of the revenue during the Union Budget.
The Budget document shows an increase in the allocation in several areas of the sector. As per the document, the Railway has been allotted,
Total (Revenue+Capital) Expenditure on Safety: 108795
Total Revenue expenditure: 275700
Total Capital Expenditure: 255200
Total of Revenue and Capital Expenditure including EBR : 540900
As per the Economic Survey 2023-24 that was presented in the Parliament yesterday, the capital expenditure on Indian Railways has increased by 77 percent over the past five years (2.62 lakh crore in FY24), with major investments in the construction of new lines, gauge conversion, and doubling.
The survey noted that, “high-speed long-distance Vande sleeper train set coaches having features like quick acceleration, diffused lighting, automatic doors and Global Positioning System-based passenger information system are under development”.
Over fifty one pairs of Vande Bharat have been introduced until March 2024.
This is Nirmala Sitharaman’s seventh consecutive Budget as the Finance Minister. She will surpass the record set by former Prime Minister Morarji Desai, who presented five annual Budgets and one Interim Budget as Finance Minister. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh presented five Budgets in a row and Pranab Mukherjee also presented five consecutive Budgets.
