Railway capex budget rules encourage finance ministry to expand model

National transporter is managing its expenditure better after Ministry brought in a new model

Encouraged by its success in getting the Railway Ministry to better manage capital investments, the Finance Ministry could extend a unique model developed this year to other ministries that will have large targets in the upcoming Budget.

For transparency and long-term planning in capital investments by the Railways, the Finance Ministry instituted a system of Memorandum of Meeting (MoM) in Financial Year 2023-24 (FY24). It was a new approach to bind the Railway Board, the top-decision making body of the national transporter, to plan how it would spend the Rs 2.4 trillion provided in Budget FY24 for capex. Of the