One day before the Union Budget is presented, on Monday, July 22, at 12 Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Economic Survey, which includes a comprehensive assessment of the state of the Indian economy, before the Parliament.
According to the Economic Survey 2024 report, the construction of new lines, gauge conversion, and doubling have resulted in significant investments, increasing the capital expenditure on railways by 77 per cent over the previous five years to Rs 2.62 lakh crore in FY24.
The Economic Survey offers a forecast for the upcoming period as well as a summary of the various economic sectors' performance in the previous fiscal year.
The report went on to state that in FY24, railways produced more locomotives and wagons than they had ever produced before. Up until March 2024, 51 pairs of Vande Bharat trains were launched.
The report said that careful project monitoring, frequent stakeholder follow-up for expedited land acquisition and clearances, and a large increase in funding have all contributed to the infrastructure's rapid expansion.
With features like sealed, wider gangways, centrally controlled automatic sliding doors, CCTVs for safety and surveillance, route map indicators, passenger information and infotainment systems, fire detection systems, and aerosol-based fire suppression systems, Railways also plans to introduce Vande metro trainset coaches. It is anticipated that the first lot will be produced in FY25.
Future projects
In order to lower logistics costs and carbon footprints, the report also stated that projects are planned for three major corridors:
(1) high-traffic-density corridors;
(2) energy, mineral, and cement corridors; and
(3) rail sagar (port connectivity) corridors. Additionally, Railways intends to lessen its carbon footprint, mainly by obtaining its energy needs from renewable sources.
