Indian Railways will receive investment worth over Rs 13.68 lakh crore in the next five years.
This was announced by the Finance Minister Nirmala Sithaaraman at a press conference in New Delhi on Tuesday.
This follows the Centre’s goal to achieve a GDP of $ 5 trillion by FY25.
For this, an investment of $1.4 trillion (Rs 100 lakh crore) on infrastructure has been envisaged during this period FY20- FY25 under the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP).
The exact investment number in IR amounts over 13 per cent of the total investment at Rs 13,68,523 crore during the period in question.
The year wise investment details for IR are as follows:
Rs 133,232 crore in FY20, Rs 262,510 crore in FY21, Rs 309,360 crore in FY22, Rs 274,181 crore in FY 23 and Rs 221,369 in FY 24 and Rs 167,870 crore in FY25 totalling Rs 1368523 crore.
National Infrastructure Pipeline Taskforce
These plans are a result of a report submitted by a task force set up by the Government of India to draw up the NIP for each of the years from FY20 to FY25.
The Task Force is chaired by Secretary, DEA with CEO (NITI Aayog), Secretary (Expenditure), Secretary of the Administrative Ministries, and Additional Secretary (Investments), DEA as members and Joint Secretary (IPF), DEA as Member Secretary.
The first meeting of the Task Force was held in September 2019. Subsequently, several meetings were held with various Departments/Ministries engaged in infrastructure development, corporates, Banks/Financial Institutions, private equity funds, and Industry Associations, such as CII, FICCI & ASSOCHAM, to seek information as well as suggestions on infrastructure reforms.
This exercise will be followed up by a periodical review process. NIP will enable a forward outlook on infrastructure projects which will create jobs, improve ease of living, and provide equitable access to infrastructure for all, thereby making growth more inclusive. NIP includes economic and social infrastructure projects.
Based on the information compiled as on date, total project capital expenditure in infrastructure sectors in India during the period FY20 to FY25 is projected at over Rs 102 lakh crore.
During the period sectors such as Energy (24 per cent), Roads (19 per cent), Urban (16 per cent), and Railways (13 per cent) amount to around 70 per cent of the total projected capex.
National Infrastructure Pipeline Funds for Indian Railways
According to the NIP, world-class stations and fully integrated rail network with inter-modal connectivity to remote regions and close to nil accidents are being envisaged.
Break up of investment
For IR, the Centre will bring in 87 per cent of the investments, private sector 12 per cent and the state governments one per cent.
Vision 2025 for Indian Railways
Healthy private sector participation: 30 per cent of net cargo volumes and 500 passenger trains privatised; 30 per cent of 750 stations privatised; rolling stock from the private sector Higher > 40 per cent modal share of railways in freight traffic EDFC and WDFC fully operational with construction underway of planned DFCs: east-west, north-south, east-coast and south-west Mumbai-Ahmedabad HSR to be operational; other identified HSR at advanced stage of implementation
100 per cent of the existing railway network electrified Optimum utilisation of existing rail network – lesser delays, due to doubling/tripling of sections on high-density corridors
Focus on safer travel, accidents to reduce drastically Improved customer experience with high-quality amenities, modern stations and quality catering Higher average speed due to investment in better coaches, track upgrades, upgraded locomotives.
There will be a lower execution rate after FY23 through to FY25 • Major projects include dedicated freight corridors and high-speed rail. 60 per cent of the rail projects are under implementation, 30 per cent at the conception stage and 10 per cent under development stage.
It is to be noted that investment in IR does not include future investments in urban transport technologies such as Hyperloop and Transit-X (they have been categorized under urban infrastructure).
