Indian Railways to spend Rs 2,15,058 crores this year on capital expenditure

New Delhi, India (Urban Transport News): To boost Rail Infrastructure and make the Indian Railways network future-ready, the Ministry of Railways has identified 56 projects all across the country in various zones to be completed by March 2021 and during the financial year 2021-22.

Indian Railways has the highest ever total Plan CAPEX of Rs 2,15,058 crores this year out of which Rs. 1,07,100 Crores for capital expenditure has been allocated in the Union Budget.  In a paradigm shift, Railways has focussed on the completion of existing projects quickly as well as simultaneity working on the new projects announced.    

As far as new big projects are concerned, Rs 40,932 Crores have been allocated for New Lines, Rs 26,116  crores for Doubling, Rs 5,263 Crores for Traffic Facilities and Rs 7,122 Crore for Road Over Bridge (ROB)/Road Under Bridges (RUB). Traffic Facilities have seen a whopping  156% jump in allocation while New Lines have got a 52% increase in allocation as Compared to the last year.

Other than these major projects, for the convenience of the Public, Railways is set to complete more than 1200 Road Over Bridge (ROB), Road Under Bridges (RUB), and Subways this year. These ROBs/RUBs are of vital importance for the public in cities and other areas where railway lines are passing through. Over and above these existing projects, an additional Rs 7,122 Crores have been allocated for the construction of new ROB/RUBs this year. It may be noted that the total number of existing ROB/RUBs in the country is 14000.

The thrust of Annual Plan 2021-22 is on infrastructure development, throughput enhancement, development of terminal facilities, augmentation of the speed of trains, signaling systems, improvement of passengers/users’ amenities, safety works of the road over/under bridges etc.