“This is the highest capital outlay for railways and is 9x over Fy2014,” Sitharaman said while announcing the Budget for FY24.
Railways was expected to be one of the top priority sectors in terms of allocation to launch new trains and upgrade of existing railway infrastructure. The railways ministry had sought more allocation to fund launch of new Vande Bharat trains, laying of new railway tracks and enhancement of security.
Railways is one of the key drivers of the PM GatiShakti scheme and the National Logistics Policy. The PM GatiShakti – the National Master plan for multi-modal connectivity – has a size of Rs 100 lakh crore, which aims to achieve decongestion of railway infrastructure by 51% by 2024-25.
The ministry had received gross budgetary support of ₹1.37 lakh crore towards capital expenditure and ₹3,267 crore for revenue expenditure in FY23, a 17% increase over previous financial year’s allocation.
In the current year, it has exhausted about 93% of its budget allocation by October 31, spending ₹1.02 lakh crore out of the capex budget and exceeding the revenue expenditure allocation by ₹25,399 crore.
Revenues from freight and passenger earnings have remained upbeat in FY23. Passenger earnings rose 76% year-on-year till November 30, while freight earnings were up 16%. The government expects the trend to continue in the next fiscal year, said the official quoted above, adding that asset monetisation also is expected to gain traction.