Around Rs 32,000 crore worth of new lines, a similar amount for doubling of existing lines, Rs 13,000 crore worth of “customer amenities” works and over Rs 4,000 crore worth of new signalling assets feature on Indian Railways’ allocation for next financial year as it sets out to spend a never-before Rs 2.6 lakh crore worth of capital investment. Dovetailing with the government's ambitious course of over Rs 10 lakh crore of capital expenditure on infrastructure, Railways has decided to build 600 km of new lines and 2,800 km of doubling, which increases its capacity to carry more. It has put itself up against a target of carrying 1,600 million tonnes of freight next fiscal — 100 MT more than this year — and doubling, tripling and quadrupling of busy corridors is essential to these plans. The Budget has allocated Rs 2.4 lakh crore to Railways' capital spend, based on which Railways has charted a total capital spend of Rs 2,60,200 crore for the next fiscal, up from 2,45,300 crore in Revised Estimates this fiscal year ending March 31. The highlight of the spending plan, reviewed by The Indian Express, is Rs 13,355 crore allocated for “customer amenities” — a new head created instead of “passenger amenities” to mean passengers as well as freight customers. Sources said Rs 12,000 crore out of this will be spent on upgrading the capacity of the goods sheds and freight yards. “As we cater to more customers in carrying freight, it is important to upgrade the goods sheds and the handling capacity for faster and more seamless processing of freight,” said a senior Railway ministry official. This year, Railways has earmarked Rs 3,132 crore for “passenger amenities” works at stations. The Rail sector has never seen so much of public spending, even by the NDA governments' standards, which has significantly raised investment in Railways year after year. In 2019-20, Railways could spend Rs 1.48 lakh crore as capex after aiming for Rs 1.56 lakh crore. The following year, it prepared a revised estimate of Rs 1.61 lakh crore of capex but ended with spending Rs 1.55 lakh crore. Similarly, it could spend Rs 1.9 lakh crore, its highest spending so far, in 2021-22 after aiming for a revised estimate of Rs 2.15 lakh crore that year. This year, it has estimated to spend Rs 2.45 lakh crore. This fiscal, however, the money allocated to doubling of lines, as per the data, is Rs 42,726 crore — over Rs 12,000 crore more than what has been earmarked for next financial year. For new lines, Railways is estimated to spend around Rs 27,000 crore this fiscal, but next year it will invest over Rs 31,000 crore, the plan says. Similarly in new rolling stock, like coaches, engines and wagons, Railways will spend around Rs 47,510 crore in FY-24. This fiscal it is slated to spend Rs 59,000 crore. Year 2023-24 is expected to see more Vande Bharat Express trains, 1,260 electric locomotives, 7,000 new coaches and 26,000 wagons.
