Vaishnaw targets Opposition over ‘fake narrative’ on privatisation

The Railways (Amendment) Bill, 2024 was introduced in Lok Sabha during the previous Parliament session. The minister said that the Bill was introduced to bring simplification in the legal structure.

“When PM Modi took over in 2014, the railways budget which used to be around Rs 25,000-30,000 crore was increased to Rs 2.52 lakh crore,” he said, adding, “railway tracks up to 31,000 km have been added since then, including 5,300 km within the last year, which is more than Switzerland’s entire railway coverage,” he said.

He also said that total derailments during the UPA regime was 443 in 365 days, which has come down by 78% to 95. On railway recruitment, he said that 4.11 lakh people were given jobs during the UPA regime while the Modi government gave jobs to 5.02 lakh people by conducting recruitment without any complaint of paper leak.

He said that while new types of trains like Vande Bharat, Amrit Bharat, Namo Bharat have been developed with new technologies, record electrification of 44,000-km has taken place over past 10 years compared to electrification of 21,000 km in 60 years before that. Underlining that focus is on passenger safety in railways, he said that at present there are zero unmanned crossings.