The Modi Government has laid massive thrust on building road, rail and ports infrastructure in the Union Budget announced on Wednesday.
While the biggest gainer of this year’s Budget is Indian Railways with the highest ever capital outlay of Rs 2.40 lakh crore, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also increased the allocation for the roads and highways sector with an enhanced outlay of Rs 2.70 lakh crore.
The outlay for the railways is nine times the amount provided in 2013-2014. Till 2014, Railways’ capital expenditure was barely Rs 45,980 crore annually but now a lot of projects are underway across the country. The allocation for rolling stock for the railways has almost doubled from Rs 15,157.86 crore in 2022-23 to Rs 37,581 crore in 2023-24.
With increased passenger expectations, the railways is planning to refurbish more than 1,000 coaches of premier trains such as Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Duronto, Humsafar and Tejas.
The interiors of these coaches will be improved with a modern look and for enhanced passenger comfort.
With high speed Vande Bharat trains set to hit the tracks, the allocation for track renewal has been increased from Rs 15,388.05 crore in 2022-23 to Rs 17,296.84 crore this year.
The Railways was allocated Rs 1.4 lakh crore in the Union Budget for 2022-23, of which Rs 1.37 lakh crore was earmarked for capital expenditure and Rs 3,267 lakh crore for revenue expenditure.
Lauding the Union Budget, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw extended gratitude to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the highest-ever capital outlay of Rs 2.40 lakh crore for railways. Vaishnaw said that the railways will focus on redeveloping 1,275 stations under the Amrit Bharat scheme across India. He added that several stations of big and small cities are in different stages of progress.
“The production of Train 18 will be further ramped up. Now, the manufacturing of Vande Bharat will take place in Haryana’s Sonipat, Maharashtra’s Latur, and Uttar Pradesh’s Rae Bareilly.” Vaishnaw said in a Press conference post the Budget.
The Budgetary allocation to road transport and Highways Ministry (MoRTH) got a raise by 36 per cent for 2023-24. This is nearly 10 per cent jump over the budgetary allocation of Rs 1.99 lakh crore made in the Budget for 2022-23.
Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari in his reaction said that inclusive development, reaching the last mile, infrastructure and investment, unleashing the potential, green growth, youth power and finance sector, the Budget adopts the priorities which complement each other.
Higher budgetary allocations were necessary to help the Ministry meet the 25,000-km road development target announced by the government in the 2022-23 Budget, amid rising interest expenses and increasing land acquisition costs.
The Government had set a target of 13,000 km of highway construction in FY2022-23, but the speed of construction was affected by pandemic cascade effect and weather conditions.
The Road Ministry is likely to complete the construction of 11,000 km of national highways in the current financial year. The Ministry has missed its target for two years in a row. It had failed to meet its target of building 12,000 km in 2021-22 and 13,000 km in 2022-23 by 1,000 and 2,000 km, respectively.
The FM also said 100 critical transport infrastructure projects for last- and first-mile connectivity for ports, coal, fertiliser and food grain sectors have been identified and will be taken up on a priority basis with investment of Rs 75,000 crore, including Rs 15,000 crore from private sources.