Budget 2021: Sitharaman announces Rs 1.10 lakh crore outlay for railways

New Delhi, Feb 01: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday announced Rs 1.10 lakh crore outlay for railways. Out of this, Rs 1.7 lakh crore is for capital expenditure.

"Indian Railways have a National Rail Plan for 2030. Next lot of airports to be privatized in tier 2 and 3 towns and cities," said FM Sitharaman.

Sitharaman also spoke of commissioning of the Eastern and Western dedicated freight corridors.

"Indian Railways has prepared a National Rail Plan for India 2030. The plan is to create a future-ready railways system by 2030 - bringing down the logistic cost for the industry is at the core of a strategy to enable Make in India. I am providing a record sum of ₹ 1,10,055 crores for Railways of which ₹ 1,07,100 crores is for capital expenditure only," she said.

The Finance Minister said to further strengthen, high-density network and highly utilised network routes of Railways will be provided with indigenously developed automatic train protection system that eliminates train collision due to human error.

"High-density rail networks and highly utilized rail routes to be provided with indigenously developed automatic train protection system which will eliminate train collision due to human error100 per cent electrification of rail broad gauge routes to be completed by December 2023," she added.