The Union government has identified 434 railway projects under three PM Gati Shakti economic corridors, totalling 40,900 kilometres, with a total investment plan of approximately Rs 11.2 lakh crore.
Railway officials apprised Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday that under these corridors, 55 projects had already been sanctioned so far with a total length of 5,723 km and an investment plan of Rs 1.03 lakh crore. During the current year, 101 projects are to be appraised.
Sitharaman chaired a review meeting on the budgeted capital expenditure of the Ministry of Railways in New Delhi.
The corridors have been identified under the PM Gati Shakti for enabling multi-modal connectivity, including energy, mineral, and cement corridors (192 projects), port connectivity corridors (200 projects), and high traffic density corridors (42 projects).
For the current financial year, the government has allocated record capex of Rs 2.6 lakh crore for railways, of which the gross budgetary support is Rs 2.52 lakh crore.
Sitharaman asked officials to expedite the implementation of the indigenous automatic train protection system Kavach in a phased manner and meet the allocated capex target in time. Kavach-related works are currently in progress in over 3,000 route km on the Delhi-Howrah and Delhi-Mumbai sections.
The finance minister also called for measures to expedite the conversion of 40,000 normal rail bogies to Vande Bharat standards—as announced in the Interim Budget 2024–25—in order to enhance the safety, convenience and comfort of passengers.
The Vande Bharat trains have become synonymous with India’s push towards high-speed, comfortable rail travel and are capable of reaching speeds of up to 160 km/h.
Last month, in a statement to the Rajya Sabha, Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw revealed that railways had introduced 772 additional train services, including 100 Vande Bharat trains, between 2019 and 2024. A substantial investment of Rs 1,343.7 crore has been allocated for the production of these state-of-the-art trains, reflecting the government's ongoing commitment to modernising the rail network.
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