Budget 2023: Railways share fires hopes of big Mumbai upgrade

The Indian Railways has received the biggest-ever allocation at Rs 2,40,000 crore in the 2023-24 Budget. With the huge outlay, Mumbai is likely to get a big boost for several ongoing projects. Railway officials have assured that there will be no shortage of funds for any of the Mumbai projects with such a huge allocation.

Sources said that the Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC), working on several rail infra projects, has this year demanded an allocation of Rs 2,650 crore, of which Rs 1,325 crore will come from the Centre's budget and Rs 1,325 crore from the state.

While the money has been announced, the detailed allocations of its projects for railways will be announced in the pink book to be tabled in the Parliament on Friday.

In 2021, Mumbai railway was allocated Rs 650 crore and in 2022, the amount was about Rs 575 crore. However, as projects progress, more funds are pumped in when required.

Also Read: Key highlights of Railway Budget 2023: Railway gets capital outlay of Rs 2.40 lakh crore, highest ever

"The budget is a go-getter budget. There was a practice of allocating Rs 1,000 for new projects to open a project head in the budget. That practice has ended today. The projects have been allocated enough money and now the onus on us railway officials is to deliver the projects and give output. There will not be any excuse for unspent money," said Western Railway General Manager AK Misra.

The Mumbai Urban Transport Projects (MUTP 3 and 3A) have been on to upgrade infrastructure in Mumbai. The projects include new rail corridors of which the Khar-Borivli sixth line project will be completed in two phases in 2023. While the Khar-Goregaon section will be ready by June 2023, the Goregaon-Borivli section will be ready by December 2023.

Besides new rail corridors, the MUTP-3A includes projects like the implementation of new Communications-Based Train Control (CBTC) signalling system, introduction of two more lines between Borivli and Virar and the upgradation and modernisation of 16 suburban stations.

There are also long-term plans to get 238 AC local trains customised for the city - 47 under MUTP-3 and 191 under MUTP-3A - having inbuilt infotainment, CCTVs and better acceleration. The trains will be procured by the MRVC and plans are in process.

What's in store nationally?

"This will be the biggest boost for our 800 crore passengers (25 crore daily). We have also decided to redevelop 1,275 Amrit Bharat stations. The Vande Bharat train will be made at Latur, Sonipat, Rae Bareli, besides ICF," Minister for Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw said.

The budget proposal is a step towards further accelerating capital investment in the railway sector to address capacity constraints and bottlenecks that result in losses. In the last few years, the Railways have invested heavily in upgrading and expanding their network.

Vaishnaw said the government proposed to manufacture 35 hydrogen fuel-based trains and the first train will be ready by December 2023. Besides 4,500 newly designed automobile carrier coaches with side entry, 5,000 LHB coaches and 58,000 wagons have also been proposed.

"We will be raising the frequency of introducing Vande Bharat Express trains to two to three per week," Vaishnaw said, adding that the Bullet train project too has been fast-tracked.

Rs 2,650cr
Funds demanded by MRVC for infra work

Rs 575cr
Allocation to city railway in 2022

No respite for us: Transport sector

An upset transport industry has said that the Budget 2023-24 has provided no respite to the road transport sector. "There has been no tangible respite for the road transport sector of India in Budget 2023-24, despite the fact that this sector is the key link in the supply chain and is one of the highest taxpayers and employment generators," said Bal Malkit Singh, chairman, core committee, All India Motor Transport Congress. "We strongly protest against the non-consideration of the road transport sector's demands. We will take a call on it in our governing council meeting," he said.