Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday commenced presentation of Budget for 2021–22 in the Lok Sabha.
Sitharaman said the Indian Railways has prepared a National Rail Plan for 2030.
"The plan is to create a future-ready railway system by 2030, bringing down the logistics cost," she said, adding, "This is at the core of the strategy to enable 'Make in India'."
She also said that 100% electrification of broad rail routes will be done by December 2023.
The Finance Minister detailed that a record Rs 1,10,055 crore has been provided to the Railways, of which Rs 1,07,100 crore has been allocated for capital expenditure in the financial year 2021–22.
Moreover, the Railways is also set to monetise dedicated freight corridors, Sitharaman said in her Budget speech on the monetisation of assets.
The government on Monday announced a Rs 18,000-crore scheme to augment public transport in urban areas.
The Union Budget 2021–22 is expected to provide relief to the pandemic-hit common man as well as focus more on driving economic recovery through higher spending on healthcare, infrastructure, and defence amid rising tensions with neighbours.
As India emerges from the COVID-19 crisis, the ninth Budget under the Modi government, including an interim one, is also expected to focus on boosting spending on job creation and rural development, generous allocations for development schemes, putting more money in the hands of the average taxpayer, and easing rules to attract foreign investments.
Sitharaman who had, in her first Budget in 2019, replaced the leather briefcase that had been for decades used for carrying budget documents with a traditional red cloth 'bahi-khata' stated earlier this month that the Budget for the fiscal year beginning April will be "like never before."
It has to be a vision statement, a road map to get the world's fastest-growing major economy back on track, she had said.
