Rail travellers will not have to deal with the "jhamela" (inconvenience) of waiting lists once the three new railway corridors announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the interim Budget speech on February 1 are completed, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav told reporters.
The Railway minister added that 434 projects will be implemented as part of the strategy to set up three new economic railway corridors to increase the capacity for running more trains and to eliminate the problem of wait-listed tickets.
The minister highlighted that the project will be a game changer for the country. “This will really bring a big transformation in our country’s economy, make it more efficient, make it more productive and reduce pollution to make it more sustainable,” he said.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in her Budget 2024 speech that the government will implement three major economic railway corridor programmes which, among other segments, would address high-traffic density corridors. The minister expects the project to be completed by 2030.
“The Prime Minister’s focus on railways is very clear. It is helping bring more capacity, it is helping…once the three corridors are completed, we will have enough capacity that the waiting list jhamela (complication) will be over. So that is the kind of capacity which is getting created,” Vaishnav said.
He added that some of the aforementioned projects are at an advanced stage of obtaining approval from the Cabinet.
“All these corridors will reduce air pollution and bring down logistics costs. These projects have been finalised after detailed study and rounds of discussion with stakeholders. Proper and detailed studies of origin and destination (OD) of goods and passengers were carried out for finalising the corridors,” Vaishnav said.
He also said that as part of the finance minister's announcement of upgrading 40,000 trains that are already in operation to Vande Bharat train standards, the Indian Railways plans to upgrade seats and toilets, and enhance safety, convenience and comfort of passengers.
Vaishnaw further said that the upgradation of the 40,000 trains would be done at a cost of Rs 15,200 crore, over the next five years.
Commenting on the railways’ earnings vis-a-vis operational expenditure (Operating Ratio), the minister said this year it’s around 98.7 percent and for 2024-25, it’s projected to be 98 percent.
The Budget document shows that the railways will likely record the maximum ever revenue from the passenger segment at Rs 73,000 crore by March end, surpassing the Budget Estimate (BE). However, the revenue from freight transportation may fall short of the BE by Rs 10,000 crore.
Vaishnaw also said that another 5500 km of new tracks will be built in the year 2024. “Last year alone, 5000 km of new tracks were laid out. Without increasing capacity, how will the new trains run? PM Modi understood this,” the minister said.
Indian Railways has been allotted a total of Rs 2.52 lakh crore outlay for the financial year 2024-25.
Highlighting the state-wise Budget allocation to the Railways sector, Ashwini Vaishnaw said, “In a land where so much innovation is happening, Tamil Nadu has received an outstanding outlay of Rs 6,331 crore to carry out several rail infrastructure and safety projects.”
“Kerala has received an exceptional outlay of Rs 2,744 crores for several rail infrastructure and safety projects,” the Railways Minister said, adding that Himachal Pradesh is set to get Rs 2,681 crore for similar projects.
Stating that 100 percent electrification of the railway network has been achieved in Haryana, the Railways Minister informed that Rs 2,861 crore has been allocated for the development of railways in the state.
The Railway minister also said that the Train Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) aka the Kavach system has been installed across 847 km of India Railways and 170 locomotives, so far.
Vaishnaw also said that by 2030 the Indian Railways plans to increase its annual passenger carrying capacity to 1,000 crore passengers from the current 7,00 crore passengers.
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