Railways may step up investment for augmenting network in FY25 full budget

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₹50,000 crore, two people aware of the matter said. The central government, which has been steadily increasing the budget for new tracks over the years, may boost allocation by a sharp 39% from the figures in February's interim budget, the people cited above said on condition of anonymity.

A higher allocation in the Union budget in July will allow the Railways to augment its network, especially in congested stretches and between cities that have seen rapid growth. The Railways had set aside ₹21,000 crore, ₹26,000 crore, and ₹34,500 crore for new tracks in FY22, FY23, and FY24 (revised estimates).

The interim budget for FY25 raised this further to ₹36,000 crore. However, despite the steep rise in allocation, the length of tracks to be added may not be substantially different from the previous years, given the use of better-quality rails to run faster trains safer, and higher cost of construction.

Faster development of new lines, including gauge conversion, doubling, tripling and quadrupling of tracks is also required to expand the coverage of semi-high speed trains such as Vande Bharat that require better and stronger tracks to attain speeds over 200 kmph, one of the two people cited above said on condition of anonymity. Laying new tracks will be part of the Railways' Vision 2047 document, under which it expects to add 100,000 km tracks including some replacements over the next 25 years at a cost of ₹15-20 trillion.

Broken down into five-year goals, this plan targets 25,000 km of new tracks over the next five years, with an investment of over ₹3.5 trillion, while yearly goals would be laying 5,000-5,500 km of new lines every year. “The focus of Railways has been on increasing infrastructure, which includes expanding the