New Delhi, (UNI) Railways Minister Ashiwin Vaishnaw on Thursday said a total of Rs 2.5 lakh crore has been allocated in the interim Budget 2024-25 for his ministry, which will provide a transformative change.
Addressing a press conference here, the Minister termed it a “historic announcement” for the transformation of Railways.
The Union Minister further stated: “In this budget, a big focus has been put on creating additional capacity through three corridors.
“Overall, through these 3 corridors, about 40,000 Km of new track will be laid which will significantly increase railway capacity and reduce pollution as railways can save up to 90% CO2 emissions in a cost-effective manner” he sai
The first is the energy, mineral and cement corridors which will help reduce the pollution of roads and ensure a reduction in the cost of logistics.
The second is port connectivity which will provide seamless connectivity to the ports through railways in a multimodal ‘Gati Shakti’.
The third is ‘Amrit Chaturbhuj’ which will be akin to a golden quadrilateral on the Railway network on high-density traffic routes.
Talking about the second big announcement, the Union Minister said: “After the success of ‘Vande Bharat’ and ‘Amrit Bharat’ trains now we can upgrade all the 40,000 conventional coaches. The work to increase capacity is happening on multiple fronts. Last year we added 5,200 km of new tracks which is equivalent to the entire rail network of Switzerland,” he stated.
The Minister said this year the Railways is adding 5,500 km. “From 4 km per day in 2014, we are now adding about 15 km per day in new tracks”.
