Economic Survey: Capital expenditure on Railways increased by 77 pc over 5 years

Capital expenditure on the Railways has increased by 77 per cent over the past five years with significant investments in the construction of new lines gauge conversion and doubling the Economic Survey 202324 said on MondayAccording to the survey tabled in Parliament by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the financial year 20192020 the capital expenditure was 148 lakh crore which was increased to 262 lakh crore in 202324Indian Railways with over 68584 route km as of March 31 2024 and 1254 lakh employees as of April 1 2024 is the fourth largest network in the world under single management the survey saidHighlighting the initiatives taken by the Railway Ministry for the enhancement of operations and services the survey mentioned Amrit Bharat Station Scheme MumbaiAhmedabad High Speed Rail MAHSR project and Dedicated Freight Corridors DFCs with the progress made in these respective projectsAccording to the survey Amrit Bharat Station Scheme launched in August 2023 for development of stations on a continuous basis involves preparation of master plans and its phased implementation to improve amenities building improvements multimodal integration and sustainabilityIt said that 1324 stations have been identified for upgradation so farTalking about another initiative MumbaiAhmedabad High Speed Rail MAHSR project the survey said that under this 508km project executed with cooperation from the government of Japan land acquisition and civil conduct award have been completedOverall physical progress of 417 per cent has been achieved and financial expenditure of 59291 crore was incurred until 31st March 2024 the survey saidTwo DFCs are under implementation namely the eastern DFC with route length of 1337 kilometre and the western DFC with route length of 1506 kilometre it addedIt further stated that by the end of FY24 961 per cent of the total DFC route length has been completedHighlighting other major achievements the survey said that the Railways achieved its highestever production for both locomotives and wagons in FY24Fifty one pairs of Vande Bharat have been introduced until March 2024 The fast pace of infrastructure augmentation has been the result of a substantial increase in financial allocation along with close project monitoring and regular followup with stakeholders for expeditious land acquisition and clearances the survey saidIt added Highspeed longdistance Vande sleeper trainset coaches having features like quick acceleration diffused lighting automatic doors and global positioning systembased passenger information system are under developmentAccording to the survey the Railways is also planning to introduce Vande metro trainset coaches with features such as sealed wider gangways centrally controlled automatic sliding doors CCTVs for safety and surveillance route map indicator passenger information and infotainment system fire detection system and aerosolbased fire suppression systemThe first lot is expected to be turned out in FY25 it saidRailways has taken several initiatives for providing a clean environment in and around railway stations and trains such as replacement of conventional toilets with biotoilets on coaches leading to clean tracks segregation of biodegradablenon biodegradable waste solid waste management and discouraging use of single use plastic the survey addedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever