Union Budget: FM Sitharaman endorses National Rail Plan; announces outlay of Rs 1,10,055cr

While presenting the Union Budget 2021-22 in Parliament on Monday, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman endorsed the National Rail Plan for India-2030 and also announced a record outlay of Rs 1,10,055 crore to Indian Railways, of which Rs 1,07,100 crore is for capital expenditure. The Union Finance Minister apprised that the Indian Railways have prepared a National Rail Plan for India - 2030 with an aim to create a 'future-ready' Railway system by 2030. 

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FM Sitharaman endorses National Rail Plan 

Stating that bringing down the logistics cost for the Railway industry is at the core of 'our strategy' to enable 'Make in India', the Union Finance Minister said, "It is expected that Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) and Eastern DFC will be commissioned by June 2022. I am providing a record sum of Rs 1,10,055 crores, for Railways of which Rs 1,07,100 crores is for capital expenditure."                                             

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Highlighting that the Union Budget also puts emphasis on passenger convenience and safety, Sitharaman said that for an enhanced travel experience, the Railways will introduce an aesthetically-designed Vista Dome LHB coach on tourist routes.

In line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Aatmanirbhar Bharat Mission, she informed that an indigenously developed automatic train system will be provided to high-density network and highly utilised network routes of Indian railways to eliminate the occurrence of train collision due to human error.

"100 per cent electrification of broad-gauge routes will be completed by December 2023," the Finance Minister added. 

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Nirmala Sitharaman also mentioned that various initiatives, including the Sonnagar - Gomoh Section (263.7 km) of Eastern DFC which will be developed in PPP mode in 2021-22, Gomoh-Dankuni section (274.3 km) will be taken up in short succession. She also mentioned that the proposed dedicated freight corridor projects, namely the East Coast corridor from Kharagpur to Vijayawada, East-West Corridor from Bhusaval to Kharagpur to Dankuni, and North-South corridor from Itarsi to Vijayawada will be undertaken. 

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(with inputs from ANI)