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NEW DELHI : The Indian Railways will invest at least ₹7 trillion over the next decade to lay a record 50,000 kilometres (km) of new train tracks to modernize its network and boost train speeds, a top railway ministry official said.
Encouraged by significant progress in laying new lines over the past couple of years, Railways now wants to go into mission mode to improve connectivity with modern tracks that can handle higher speed trains such as Vande Bharat, the official said on the condition of anonymity.
Laying new tracks will be part of a new Vision 2047 document for the national transporter, under which it expects to add 100,000 km of new alignments, including some replacements, doubling and gauge conversion works over the next 25 years costing ₹15-20 trillion.
“Railways has successfully added a record 5,200 km new tracks in 2022-23 and expects the same this year. The target is to maintain this pace for the next 10 years while also focusing on the replacement of old worn-out tracks to present a strong railway infrastructure capable of handling modern high-speed transportation systems,” the official said.
A query sent to a railway ministry spokesperson remained unanswered till press time.
Railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had told Mint in an earlier interview that laying new tracks would be a key focus area of the national transporter to bring modern railway infrastructure to every part of India.
Next year’s budget may allocate ₹50,000 crore for laying 5,000-5,500 km of new tracks, the official added. This will be an increase of more than 50% from the FY24 budget estimate of ₹31,850 crore for new lines.
The budget set aside ₹26,000 crore and ₹21,000 crore for laying new tracks in FY23 and FY22, respectively. However, over 5,000 km of tracks were laid in FY23 and proposed to be laid in FY24, using resources available under other heads which qualify as laying new tracks by the railways. In FY22, FY23 and FY24 ₹37,150 crore, ₹42 ,492 crore and ₹30,749 crore were provided for doubling, a large chunk of which qualified as construction of new lines.
At current costs, laying a 1 km of track will cost around ₹15 crore. This could vary depending on the movement of prices of basic inputs such as steel as well as the availability of land for laying tracks. The official said the Railways will ensure that all new lines meet the requirements of high-speed and semi-high-speed trains such as Vande Bharat that can touch 180 kmph.
To fulfil its infrastructure plans, Railways expects the Centre to continue to maintain the level of gross budgetary support (GBS). For 2023-24, the Centre provided a record GBS of ₹2,40,200 crore, up 51% from ₹1,59,300 crore (revised estimates) in 2022-23.
Higher GBS has also raised Railways’ overall capital spending, which is estimated at ₹2,60,200 crore in 2023-24, up 6% over the previous year. There is also a significant change in the pattern of financing capital expenditure. In 2023-24, 92% of capital expenditure is estimated to be financed through budgetary support from the central government and 7% from extra budgetary resources.
In comparison, in 2022-23, their contributions are estimated at 65% and 33%, respectively.
Railways’ focus on expanding its network is in line with projected growth in train traffic, both passenger and freight. According to a railway ministry study, more than 8 billion people travel by train each year, which is projected to hit 80 billion by 2030, so that much capacity is required.
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Published: 24 Dec 2023, 11:11 PM IST
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