Union minister Ashwini Vaishnav on July 23 said the Indian railways has been allocated ₹2.62 lakh crore under Budget for 2024-25 and ₹1.08 lakh core will be utilised on safety related activities.
“This is a record allocation for Indian railways. Of the total allocation, ₹1.08 lakh crore will be used for safety related activities such as replacement of old tracks, improve signaling system, installation of Kavach system, construction of flyovers and underpasses,” said Ashwini Vaishnav.
The Indian railways recently has got approval for ‘Kavach 4.0’ safety system, which is a combination of hardware, software, optical fiber, telecom tower, on track system and data centre administration and it will get installed on a rapid pace, Vaishnav added.
The announcement has come days after train accidents were witnessed in Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. On July 18, four people died and several were injured after 21 coaches of Chandigarh-Dibrugarh Express derailed in Uttar Pradesh's Gonda.
Earlier on June 17, at least 15 people died and around 60 others were injured after a goods train collided with the Sealdah-bound Kanchanjunga Express near Rangapani station in West Bengal.
{{/usCountry}}Earlier on June 17, at least 15 people died and around 60 others were injured after a goods train collided with the Sealdah-bound Kanchanjunga Express near Rangapani station in West Bengal.
{{/usCountry}}Vaishnav also informed that the demand for "general" travel in India is on the rise and railways recently had decided to manufacture 10,000 extra general coaches over and above the 2,500 general coaches.
“The demand will get covered under the new budgetary allocation made by the finance minister," Vaishnav added.
In the last ten years, five lakh jobs have been given to people, which is 20 percent higher than the 4.11 lakh jobs given under the ten years of the UPA government, he said.
Indian Railways is focused on setting up new projects in the country and it has completed many dream projects such as connectivity with Kashmir and northeast.
“With the help of this budget allocation, projects such as Vande metro, Vande Bharat, Amrit Bharat will also get covered,” said the minister.
In the last fiscal year, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had allocated ₹2.40 lakh crore to railways.