Indian Railway Budget 2024: Three railway corridor programs were announced in the interim budget, which aims to boost economic growth by increasing connectivity to energy, minerals, cement, ports and high-traffic areas.
The projects were selected as part of the PM Gati Shakti program to enhance multi-modal connectivity. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in her budget speech that these proposals will enhance logistics and reduce costs.
He said, “Reducing congestion in high traffic corridors will improve passenger train operations, increase safety for passengers and travel speed. “Along with dedicated freight corridors, these economic corridor programs will boost gross domestic product (GDP) growth and reduce logistics costs.”
Sitharaman talked about two big problems facing Indian Railways in 2023: safety and late trains. These issues have come to light after major accidents, such as in Balasore, Odisha, where 300 people died when three trains collided on June 2, 2023.
Apart from this, due to there being many trains on the track, a huge crowd was seen in the stations. Because of which, passengers had to face a lot of problems during the festival season.
Sitharaman announced that 40,000 regular train coaches will be upgraded to meet the safety, convenience and comfort of Vande Bharat trains.
In 2022, the Railways planned to expand the infrastructure by FY 2028 to handle 3000 million tonnes of freight by FY 2030, named Mission 3000 MT. There are more than 1200 projects to be completed in five years under Mission 3000 MT, costing approximately Rs 8.45 trillion. These projects are in different stages of completion.
In FY23, Railways loaded 1512 million tonnes, up 6.63% from 1418 million tonnes in FY21-22, the highest-ever loading in a financial year. From April to November 2023 they loaded 1015.67 million tonnes, compared to 978.72 million tonnes last year.