New Delhi
The Railways has utilised 75 per cent of its targetted capex till December 2023. Capex utilisation for 9 months of FY24 has been to the tune of ₹1,95,930 crore, up 33 per cent. This is the highest ever capex utilisation.
The capex earmarked for the fiscal was ₹262 lakh crore; while utilisation for the year-ago period (9MFY23) was ₹146, 248.73 crore.
The Railways saw its highest allocation ever and a nine times jump in last year’s Budget outlay (2023) since 2013-14 to ₹240,000 crore. The increased outlay came at a time when the Railways is going ahead with ambitious modernisation projects that include hydrogen-powered trains, more Vande Bharat rakes, completion of bullet train project, among others.
In a statement, it said: “Indian Railways has made an expenditure of ₹ 1, 95,929.97 crore till December 2023 which is approximately 75 per cent of the total capex during this financial year.”
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This investment is seen in various infrastructure projects like new lines, doubling, gauge conversion and enhancing passenger amenities.
Safety of the passengers is paramount (and) a significant sum has been invested in enhancing the safety related works, the statement added.
Metro Rail network
Metro Rail network has also seen a near doubling of operational line coverage from 2018-19, and a four-fold jump in city coverage, extending to 20 cities.
In ‘The Indian Economy: A Review’ released by the Department of Economic Affairs, it was mentioned that with the Metro Rail Policy of 2017, the operational metro rail network in the country has expanded by more than 450 km since 2018-19.
“At present, more than 900 km of Metro Rail network is operational in the country,” it added.
The presence of Metro Rail has expanded from five cities in 2014 to 20 cities in 2023. Around 130 MW95 of solar power is used to run the metro system, the Review added.
The release also talks about the Project Monitoring Group (PMG) mechanism being a game-changer in expediting the execution of long-delayed projects.
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Since June 2014, 2,169 projects worth ₹49.4 lakh crore have been on-boarded on the PMG portal, it said adding that of these, 676 projects worth ₹12.2 lakh crore have been commissioned.
Projects such as the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (resolved 201 issues out 214), Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (resolved 113 issues out of 118), Hyderabad Metro Rail project (55 issues resolved), and Jagdishpur - Haldia & Bokaro -Dhamra Pipeline Project (resolved 71 out of 75 issues) have immensely benefited from the mechanism, it was mentioned.