Budget 2018: A 15-year, Rs 35.3-trillion plan to put Railways on track

BUDGET 2018 - The Indian Railways is working on a Rs 35.3-trillion investment plan by 2032, pushing up the capital expenditure for the ministry by around 92 per cent annually. Going by the ambitious vision, the average annual investment, including capacity addition and modernization, would touch around Rs 2.5 trillion, up from the Rs 1.31 trillion in 2017-18.

This long-term investment will also comprise the modernisation plan of ‘Vision 2030’ and also Rs 8.56-trillion investment target that former minister Suresh Prabhu had kicked off starting 2014-15. “The Indian Railways will require approximately Rs 35.3 trillion by 2032 to create the requisite capacity and modernize the system,” the ministry said in a report to the Parliamentary Standing Committee. The Railways, under Piyush Goyal, has already started the work, aiming to achieve at least 4000 km electrification per year in the coming years.

The capex for Railways during 2015-16 and 2016-17 were Rs 935.2 billion and Rs 1.21 trillion, respectively, posting a significant increase in the recent years.

As per the latest plan, railways freight share may zoom from 33 per cent now to around 47 per cent. It has also set a target of increasing the passenger kilometre to 3.3 trillion PKM in 2030, from about 1.13 trillion PKM now. While the completion of dedicated freight corridors would segregate freight and passenger traffic on high density routes, speed of freight trains will increase from 25 km per hour (kmph) to 100 kmph.