New rail corridors to cost Rs 11 trn, add 40K km of tracks: Vaishnaw

The three rail corridors announced by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Interim Budget of 2024-25 will cost the Centre Rs 11 trillion and add 40,000 kilometres (km) of tracks to the already existing railway network, Ashwini Vaishnaw, union minister for railways, said on Thursday.
 

“Once the three corridors are completed, we will have enough capacity that the problem of waiting lists will be over,” he added.

According to the minister, the national transporter has taken its learnings from the development of Vande Bharat and Amrit Bharat trains and will use these to upgrade 40,000 bogies for a safer and speedier experience. 
 

These changes, he said, will be undertaken across air-conditioned and non-air conditioned coaches over a period of five years.

“The Budget has laid the foundation for the blueprint of railway modernisation. It lays out the roadmap to increase passenger capacity to 10 billion from 7 billion. Secondly, it is important for safety that tracks are not congested with ample time for maintenance and repair. Thirdly, a new form of train service is envisioned,” Vaishnaw said.  
 

The national transporter is expected to have an operating ratio of 98.7 per cent in the current financial year.
 

“All our pension expenses are being financed through internal revenues. There is very strict discipline in the railways when it comes to finances. Secondly, the benefits of electrification are visible now. There are continuous stretches which are fully electrified now, providing seamless connectivity. Our diesel consumption has significantly reduced now,” he said, in response to a query by Business Standard.
 

“By the end of January, we spent 82 per cent of allocated capital expenditure (Rs 2.4 trillion), which is significant considering that work continued despite elections. Next year, we are poised to spend Rs 2.52 trillion (from budgetary allocations),” Vaishnaw said.
 

Freight earnings have been a cause of concern for the sector, as capacity expansion works and commercial factors have slowed down the railways’ momentum in its profitable freight service. The ministry had kept a target of Rs 1.75 trillion in revenue from goods, which it has revised down by nearly Rs 10,000 crore in the Revised Estimates for the current financial year.
 

Vaishnaw clarified that the freight performance has been good considering the complex challenges of capacity constraints.

“There still is huge congestion, where capacity has to be added significantly, but train services also have to be running. We cannot stop entire corridors like other countries,” he said.
 

The minister also said that talks on the India-Middle East Economic Corridor (IMEC) are moving rapidly.
 

“IMEC is progressing very well. Conceptually, alignments missing links in the trade route have been identified and there is clarity that this is one big insurance against any disruptions in trade routes,” he said.