Vaishnaw revealed that out of the total railway budget of Rs 2,62,200 crore, a record Rs 1,08,795 crore has been earmarked for safety initiatives.
The Indian Railways is set to allocate a significant portion of its budget towards enhancing train safety and implementing the “Kavach” automatic train-protection system, announced Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Tuesday (July 23) during his comments on the Union Budget 2024-25.
Vaishnaw revealed that out of the total railway budget of Rs 2,62,200 crore, a record Rs 1,08,795 crore has been earmarked for safety initiatives. These include the replacement of old tracks, signaling system improvements, and the construction of flyovers and underpasses, alongside the installation of Kavach.
“A big chunk of this allocation — Rs 1,08,795 crore — is meant for safety-related activities, such as replacement of old tracks with new ones, improvement in the signalling system and construction of flyovers and underpasses, and to install Kavach, among others,” he said.
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Railway Budget prioritises Kavach
Highlighting the priority given to Kavach, the Railway Minister mentioned the recent approval of Kavach 4.0 by the Research Designs and Standards Organisation, facilitating its rapid deployment. Vaishanw noted that significant progress has been made in laying optical fibre cables over 4,275 km and installing other components like telecom towers, track RFID devices, station Kavach, and loco Kavach.
Railway Budget comparison from previous years
Comparing current allocations with previous years, Vaishnaw pointed out that the budget for railways in 2014 was around Rs 35,000 crore, significantly lower than the current Rs 2.62 lakh crore.
“Around 2014, the budgetary allocation for the railways was used to be only about Rs 35,000 crore. Today, it has reached a new level of Rs 2.62 lakh crore. This budget takes forward the hard work and focused approach of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s last 10 years of rule,” the Rail Minister highlighted.
“Before 2014, in 60 years, only 20,000 km of rail route was electrified but in the last 10 years, 40,000 km of rail route has been electrified. Similarly, in 2014, 4 km per day new track construction used to happen on an average, but in the last financial year, the railways constructed tracks on an average for 14.5 km per day, which means in the entire financial year, it constructed 5,300 km new tracks,” he added.
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Railway infrastructure expansion, other initiatives to continue
He attributed this increase to the focused efforts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government over the past decade, highlighting achievements such as electrifying 40,000 km of rail routes and increasing average daily new track construction to 14.5 km.
Furthermore, Vaishnaw emphasised continuity in infrastructure expansion, bottleneck removal, and technological advancements in railway operations.
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Low and middle-income groups in focus in Railway Budget
Vaishanw also added that the railways serve passengers from the low and middle-income groups, and to accommodate this, it maintains a ratio of one-third air-conditioned coaches to two-thirds general coaches in each train set.
“The railways caters to low and middle-income group passengers and keeping this in mind, it maintains the ratio of general and air-conditioned coaches, which is one-third air-conditioned coaches and two-thirds general coaches of the total number of coaches in a train set,” he said.
Vaishnaw highlighted that in response to rising demand for general coaches, the ongoing financial year will see the manufacture of an additional 2,500 coaches. He also announced plans to manufacture 10,000 more general coaches to meet the increasing demand, with both decisions included in the budget.
Regarding employment, Vaishnaw noted a 20% increase in railway job opportunities under the Modi government. “So far as employment is concerned, in 10 years of the UPA rule, 4.11 lakh jobs were offered in the railways, whereas in 10 years of the Modi regime, five lakh jobs were offered, which is 20 per cent more than the UPA rule,” Vaishnaw said.
