Rail Budget 2023-24: Big push for ‘Make in India’

NEW DELHI, JAN 29

(IANS): In the upcoming Railway Budget, the emphasis will be on the development of infrastructure, ‘Make in India’ high-speed trains and the completion of incomplete railway projects. In the Union Budget 2023-24, the entire emphasis of the Modi government will be on infrastructure development, especially projects related to Railways and getting high-speed trains becoming operational as soon as possible.

The Modi government is working on increasing the railway budget by 20-25 per cent to strengthen the infrastructure of the entire railway system. According to sources in the Railways Ministry, there is a possibility of an allocation of nearly Rs 1.8 lakh crore for this sector in 2023-24, which was Rs 1.4 lakh crore in 2022-23.

According to Railway Ministry officials, in this year’s budget more allocation will be made for laying new tracks, increasing the number of semi-high-speed Vande Bharat trains, introducing hydrogen-powered trains as well as the Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train project.

The Indian Railways aims to seek permission from the Central government to meet its target of replacing conventional coaches of all express and mail trains with India-made and German-developed Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) coaches. Under the Vision 2024 projects, in the second half of the decade, apart from commissioning of new dedicated freight corridors and high-speed passenger corridors, multitracking and signaling upgrades of congested routes have been targeted. The Indian Railways aims to rapidly redevelop the infrastructure of more