Budget 2024-25: Indian Railways capex increased marginally to record Rs 2.652 trillion; focus on critical safety works

The bulk of this capex comes from an unprecedented share of government budget support or general revenues, set at Rs 2.52 trillion, a 5 percent increase from Rs 2.4 trillion in the previous year's revised estimate, Business Standard reported.

Additional contributions to the capex include Rs 10,000 crore from extra-budgetary resources, Rs 3,000 crore from internal resources, and Rs 200 crore from the Nirbhaya Fund.

A key indicator of the railways' financial health, its operating ratio is targeted at 98.22 percent for the current financial year, compared to a revised estimate of 98.65 percent in 2023-24.

This indicates that the national transporter will spend Rs 98.22 for every Rs 100 it earns.

“The allocation is Rs 2.62 trillion for capital investment (excluding internal resources), which is a record number. In 2014, it used to be Rs 35,000 crore," said Union railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw while addressing the media on Tuesday.

Vaishnaw emphasised that a chunk of this allocation would be spent on safety and Rs 1.08 trillion would be spent on crucial safety works like Kavach, repairing and overhauling of old lines.

"Kavach will be a major part of the safety allocations this year. Kavach 4.0 has been approved two days ago, and will help the needs of the diverse railway network,” he said.

The net revenue expenditure of Indian Railways is projected at Rs 2.79 trillion in the Budget Estimate (BE) for 2024-25, an 8 percent increase from Rs 2.59 trillion in the Revised Estimate (RE) for 2023-24.

In the Budget speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman only mentioned the national transporter while allocating development funds for Andhra Pradesh.

The total receipts for railways, which include revenues from passengers, goods, other coaching, sundry other heads, and Railway Recruitment Boards, are also set at Rs 2.79 trillion in BE 2024-25, up from Rs 2.59 trillion in RE 2023-24.

Given the increasing number of general coach passengers, the railways will produce an additional 10,000 non-air-conditioned coaches, Vaishnaw said.

He said the ratio of general coaches to AC coaches has always been the same. The demand for general travel has been increasing to 7 billion, requiring the government to manufacture more coaches.