FM skips Railways in Budget speech; no hike in safety spending despite frequent disasters
Nirmala Sitharaman makes no specific announcement for Railways; budgetary allocation only a meagre enhancement from previous fiscal’s share
Railway safety continues to be ignored in the Union Budget despite the country recording 68 train accidents per year on an average during the past 10 years of the Narendra Modi government.
No mention of Railways
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman did not make any specific announcement for the Indian Railways in her Budget 2024 speech on Tuesday (July 23), belying expectations of expenditure hike to meet the safety requirements.
Even Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw did not mention anything about the allocation and programmes outlined for his ministry in the series of posts on the Budget he made on X.
The only time Railways was mentioned in Sitharaman’s speech was when she announced that for the promotion of industrial development under the provisions of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act, funds will be provided for essential infrastructure such as water, power, railways, and roads.
Where Rail Budget is allocated
The budgetary allocation for the Railways stood at Rs 2.56 lakh crore, which is almost the same as the Rs 2.52 lakh crore allocated in the Interim Budget for 2024-2025. It’s a meagre enhancement from the Rs 2.40 lakh crore provided in the previous fiscal.
The lion’s share of the allocation would be spent on laying new lines, gauge conversion, rolling stock, track renewals, computerisation, signalling and telecom, electrification, customer amenities, production of energy-efficient, three-phase electric locos, among others, say the Budget documents.
Substantial allocation has also been made for three major economic railway corridors — energy, mineral, and cement corridor, port connectivity corridor, and high-traffic density corridor — envisaged for multi-modal connectivity.
Kavach gets a miss
The allocation to Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh (RRSK) has been increased to Rs 1,800 crore from Rs 1,000 crore in the revised estimate for 2023-24. But even that is quite insignificant compared to the safety challenges the sector is facing.
The document did not separately mention any allocation made for the implementation of the anti-collision Kavach system, which was expected to get a push following two major back-to-back railway disasters within about a year.
The budgetary allocation for Kavach for the 2024 fiscal was Rs 710 crore. Of that, Rs 560 crore was earmarked in the Interim Budget.
Too little for safety
Experts feel the allocation is too little, considering that simply equipping a locomotive with the technology costs around Rs 70 lakh per unit. Besides, trackside and station equipment costs around Rs 50 lakh per kilometre.
Only around 1,465 route km and 121 locomotives have been equipped so far with the safety measure. Going by the Budget document, it is unlikely that Kavach rollout will be expedited anytime soon.
Total capex
The overall outlay for the capital expenditure in the Budget is estimated to be Rs 2,65,200 crore. This includes Rs 2,52,000 crore from general revenue, Rs 200 crore from Nirbhaya Fund, Rs 3,000 crore from internal resources, and Rs 10,000 crore from extra-budgetary resources.
The net revenue expenditure is placed at Rs 2,78,500 crore as against the revised estimate of Rs 2,58,600 crore.
