The Railway plan for 2003-04 has been fixed at Rs. 10,607 crore, Rs. 603 crore higher than the revised estimates of the current year.
Railway Minister Nitish Kumar said on Wednesday that taking into account the outlay of Rs. 2311 crore on safety related works through the Special Railway
Safety Fund (SRSF), the outlay comes to Rs. 12,918 crore.
This also includes Rs. 730 crore specifically for investment in the newly created Rail Vikas Nigam. The corresponding figure for 2002-03 was Rs. 5840 crore including Rs. 1,350 crore for the SRSF and Rs. 450 crore from the CRF.
Apart from this, Rs. 730 crore has been earmarked for several works in the plan heads, new lines, doubling, gauge conversion and railway electrification.
The outlay on safety related plan heads, inclusive of outlay given under the SRSF is Rs. 2605 crore for track renewals, Rs. 302 for the bridges and Rs. 689 crore for signalling and telecommunications.