Railway capex budget rules encourage finance ministry to expand 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 approximately Rs 10 trillion the Budget provided for capex, the Railways got the largest share.

“The document (MoM) is a