Press Information Bureau

Government of India

Ministry of Railways

14-March-2012 14:46 IST

Rs. 4410 Crore Allocated for Capacity Augmentation Works

The Ministry of Railways has proposed to allocate about Rs. 4,410 crore to capacity augmentation works. Announcing this while introducing the Railway Budget for 2012-13 in Parliament today the Minister of Railways Shri Dinesh Trivedi said, to continue Indian Railways’ drive towards improving passenger amenities, an allocation of Rs. 1,102 crore has been provided compared to Rs. 762 crore in 2011-12. He said that valuable services rendered by dedicated workforce of Indian Railways need to be recognized by providing improved amenities to them. This would be in the form of improvements at work places, better housing facilities, improved service at hospitals and other facilities. Accordingly, allocation of Rs. 717 crore in the current year has been almost doubled to Rs. 1,388 crore in 2012-13.

The Minister said, the Budgetary Support to Indian Railways has been pegged at a modest level of Rs. 24,000 crore as against a projected requirement of Rs. 45,000 crore. The national projects in Kashmir and northeast region have also to be funded out of this. These projects alone need more than Rs. 4,000 crore for the current year and may get delayed for want of adequate funding.

He said, the Indian Railways has a great achievement of completing 11 km long tunnel through Pir Panjal Mountain Range in Jammu & Kashmir, which would provide connectivity to the Kashmir Valley. When commissioned, this will be the longest transportation tunnel.

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MKP/AD/DB

Capacity augmentation funding constrained by modest budget support may delay national projects and affect passenger and workforce amenities. The 2012-13 Railway Budget designates Rs. 4,410 crore for capacity augmentation, increases passenger amenities funding to Rs. 1,102 crore and raises workforce amenities funding to Rs. 1,388 crore; however, a Budgetary Support level of Rs. 24,000 crore-well below a projected requirement of Rs. 45,000 crore-creates funding shortfalls that risk delaying national projects in Kashmir and the northeast requiring more than Rs. 4,000 crore.