Agartala, Jul 24, 2024, By Our Correspondent
Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister for Railways, held an interaction with media persons of Northeast virtually from New Delhi in connection with the allocation for the Railway Ministry in the General Budget 2024-25.
While addressing the media persons, the Minister informed that a record allocation for capital investment of Rs. 2.62 lakh crore had been provided for the Railways, said a press statement issued by the NFR CPRO Sabyasachi De.. A large part of it, i.e. Rs. 1.08 lakh crore, the statement said, will be utilised on safety related activities such as replacement of old tracks with new ones, improving signalling system, installation of Kavach system, construction of Road Under Bridges/Road Over Bridges by replacing existing level crossing gates.
Vaishnaw, said, this budget focused on introduction of new rolling stocks like Amarit Bharat Trains, Vande Metro, Vande Bharat Sleeper. Railways’ direction on safety first, comfort of passengers, capacity augmentation and improving the infrastructure of Railways were prioritised. An advanced version of ‘Kavach 4.0’ had got recent approval, which would be installed in a rapid pace.
‘Kavach 4.0’ is a combination of hardware, software, optical fibre, telecom tower, on track system, stations and data centre administration, said the minister adding thatt due to the rising demand for general coaches, railways had decided to manufacture 2,500 general coaches in this current fiscal year. Further it had been decided to manufacture an additional 10,000 general coaches to cater to the rising demand.
Vaishnaw said that the Gross Budget Allocation for N. F. Railway for the FY 2024-25 was Rs. 14,183.69 crore. The allocation for North-eastern states is Rs. 10,376 crore which was about 5 times higher than the average allocation of Rs. 2,122 crore made during 2009-14.
During the interaction, GM informed that adequate fund had been allotted for all infrastructure & safety related works as compared to previous years. The General Manager announced that that electrification of 921 RKM was done during 2023-24. 1573 RKM of tracks were targeted to be electrified during 2024-25. This would complete the electrification of all the N. E. States. Rs. 694.69 crore had been allocated for electrification works over N. F. Railway.
This year budget allocation showed unprecedented growth in several segments for N. F. Railway. Around 8378.53 crore have been allocated for new line and doubling projects. Keeping safety and operations on top priority, Rs. 1305.07 crore had been allocated for track renewal works and bridge works and Rs. 170 crore for signalling and telecom works. Rs. 537 crore had been allocated to improve passenger amenities in stations premises. Total 18 railway infrastructure projects of 1,368 km length with a total investment of Rs. 74,972 crore were going on in entire North-eastern region.
It is to be mentioned here that 60 stations of N. F. Railway will be redeveloped with world class facilities under Amrit Bharat Stations Scheme. Out of these 50 in Assam, 04 in Tripura and 01 each in Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland & Sikkim will be upgraded. A record no. of 470 Road Over Bridges/Road Under Bridges were constructed since 2014 over N. F. Railway by replacing existing level crossing gates to enhance safety for road and rail users.The budget emphasizes on changing the overall infrastructure scenario of Railways in addition to providing safety. The Northeast connectivity will boost further with the record allocations as never before which will also further augment the contribution of Indian Railways towards transforming North-eastern states.