While presenting the Union Budget 2021-22 in Parliament on Monday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman endorsed the National Rail Plan for India - 2030 and announced a record outlay of Rs 1,10,055 crore to Indian Railways of which Rs 1,07,100 crore is for capital expenditure.
The Union Finance Minister said Indian Railways have prepared a National Rail Plan for India - 2030 with the aim to create a 'future-ready' Railway system by 2030.
"Bringing down the logistic costs for our industry is at the core of our strategy to enable 'Make in India'. It is expected that Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) and Eastern DFC will be commissioned by June 2022. I am providing a record sum of Rs 1,10,055 crores, for Railways of which Rs 1,07,100 crores is for capital expenditure," said Sitharaman.
The budget also puts emphasis on passenger convenience and safety. For an enhanced travel experience, the Railways will introduce aesthetically-designed Vista Dome LHB coach on tourist routes.
With the mantra of 'Atmrbhar Bharat', an indigenously developed automatic train protection system will be provided to high-density network and highly utilized network routes of Indian railways to eliminate the occurrence of train collision due to human error.
Sitharaman said 100 per cent electrification of broad-gauge routes will be completed by December 2023.
The Finance Minister mentioned various initiatives including the Sonnagar - Gomoh Section (263.7 km) of Eastern DFC which will be developed in PPP mode in 2021-22. Gomoh-Dankuni section (274.3 km) will also be taken up in short succession.
She also mentioned that the proposed dedicated freight corridor projects namely East Coast corridor from Kharagpur to Vijayawada, East-West Corridor from Bhusaval to Kharagpur to Dankuni and North-South corridor from Itarsi to Vijayawada will be undertaken.
( With inputs from ANI )
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