Focus On Vande Bharat, Not On Trains For Poor? What Railway Minister Said

India struck a balance between greater spending on jobs and rural development as well as transferring more funds to states, while narrowing the fiscal deficit, the 2024-25 budget unveiled on Tuesday showed. It though appeared largely silent on big-ticket announcements for Railways.

The word Railways was mentioned just once during Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s 83-minute long Budget speech.

The Economic Survey 2023-24 on Monday said the capital expenditure on the Railways has increased by 77 per cent over the past five years with significant investments in the construction of new lines, gauge conversion and doubling.According to the survey tabled in Parliament by the Finance Minister, in the financial year 2019-2020, the capital expenditure was 1.48 lakh crore which was increased to ₹ 2.62 lakh crore in 2023-24.