Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of ‘Vikas’ received a major boost in his Government’s fourth General Budget on Wednesday with infrastructure development getting a larger share of about Rs3.96 lakh crore for rail, road, rivers, aviation and related sectors. In addition, for resource mobilisation, the Government also decided to list on stock exchanges Railway PSUs such as IRCTC, IRFC and Concor.
While presenting the Budget for 2017-18, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley termed the infrastructure sector as the top priority of the Government and said the magnitude of investment in the space is bound to spur growth. Describing railways, roads and rivers as the “lifeline” of the country, the Finance Minister, said, “Total allocation for infrastructure stands at a record level Rs3,96,135 crore in 2017-18.”
The allocation for infrastructure in 2016-17 budgetary estimate was Rs3,48,952 crore which was revised to Rs3,58,634 crore. “This magnitude of investment will spur a huge amount of economic activity across the country and create more job opportunities,” he said.
While Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari said a “revolutionary Budget” was presented in the history of India, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu termed it as an “unprecedented” because of the provision of Rs1.31 lakh crore for Railways’ capital expenditure. Jaitley said that an effective multi-modal logistics and transport system will make our economy more competitive. A specific programme for development of multi-modal logistic parks together with multi-modal facilities will be drawn up and implemented, he said.
The Union Budget which also included railways this time also proposed to create a Rail safety fund with a corpus of Rs1,00,000 crore over a period of five years and withdrawal of service charge on rail tickets booked through IRCTC. As many as 500 rail stations will be made differently-abled-friendly by providing lifts and escalators.
There was no separate Rail Budget this time as it was merged with the General Budget under the Government’s agenda for reforms. The Railway Budget also provides for commissioning of new railway lines of 3,500 km.
Elaborating on the Rail Budget part to media persons, Prabhu said Railways will implement an end-to-end integrated transport solutions for select commodities through partnership with logistics players, who would provide both front and back end connectivity. “Rolling stocks and practices will be customised to transport perishable goods, especially agricultural products,” Prabhu said.
While the tariffs of Railways would be fixed, taking into consideration costs, quality of service, social obligations and competition from other forms of transport, it also announced for a competitive ticket booking facility to the public at large.
Jaitley also enhanced the allocation for highways sector by 12 per cent to Rs64,900 crore for 2017-18. Jaitley said the total length of roads, including those under PMGSY (Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna), built from 2014-15 till the current year is about 1, 40,000 kms, which is significantly higher than previous three years.
Besides, 2,000 kms of coastal connectivity roads have been identified for construction and development. “This will facilitate better connectivity with ports and remote villages,” he said. “We have also taken up the task of connecting habitations with more than 100 persons in left wing extremism affected blocks,” Jaitley said, adding, “We have committed to complete the current target under PMGSY by 2019.”