Union Minister for Railways, Information & Broadcasting and Electronics & IT, Ashwini Vaishnav, while discussing the provisions made for Indian Railways in the budget presented on Tuesday through video conferencing, said that under the leadership of the Prime Minister, the strategy for the development of railways in the last 10 years has been changed and emphasis has been laid on maximum investment, due to which special attention has been given to safety, expansion of infrastructure, modernization and passenger facilities on railways.
In the year 2024-25, a budget provision of Rs 2,62,200 crore has been made for Railways, which is the highest till date. An allocation of Rs 108 thousand crore has been made in this budget to strengthen safety in Railways. Describing safety as an important subject of Railways, the Railway Minister said that last year Rs 98 thousand crore has been spent on safety related items on Indian Railways.
Madhya Pradesh gets budget allocation of Rs 14738 crore
Ashwini Vaishnav, Railway Minister, while providing information about Madhya Pradesh, said that Madhya Pradesh state is the heartland of the country. Till the year 2009-14, Madhya Pradesh used to get an average budget of only Rs 632 crore per year, which has been allocated Rs 14,738 crore in the budget for the year 2024-25 under the leadership of the Prime Minister, which is the highest budget allocation till date.
Ashwini Vaishnav informed that rail works are going on very fast in Madhya Pradesh. Work is going on on investment projects worth Rs 81 thousand crore in Madhya Pradesh. Total 100 percent of the railway lines in Madhya Pradesh have been electrified. 80 railway stations are being redeveloped under the Amrit Station Scheme. 1062 flyovers and road under bridges have been constructed on railway tracks in Madhya Pradesh.
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav talked about completing the railway projects in Madhya Pradesh within the targeted time through adequate budget. A significant fund has been set aside for safety related activities in Railways.Talking about safety, Railway Minister said that the work related to Kavach system has been completed on Indian Railways and Kavach 4.0 version has been finalized by RDSO, now a plan is being prepared to install this state-of-the-art Kavach system on various railway routes. He informed that works like laying optical fiber cable, installing towers, setting up data centers and installing RFID devices are done to install the Kavach system, which takes time.
Kavach system has been installed on about 3000 km of railway track on Indian Railways.In the Railway Budget Press Conference of Railway Minister, General Manager of West Central Railway, Shobhana Bandopadhyaya and Additional General Manager RS Saxena also joined virtually through video conferencing in the headquarters auditorium. Addressing the media persons, GM Bandopadhyaya said that adequate budget has been provided for infrastructure works in Madhya Pradesh.
