Budget 2024: Highway, railways account for 47% of ₹5.24 lakh crore capital outlay

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and the Ministry of Railways have been allocated a mega share of capital expenditure outlay for the next financial year. At ₹5,24,241 crore, the total allocation made to the ministries accounts for about 47% of the total allocation worth ₹11,11,111 crore made for FY25.

The Highway Ministry got an allocation of ₹2,72,241 crore compared with ₹2,58,600 crore allocated in 2023-24. Notably, the allocation for the current fiscal has been hiked marginally to ₹2,64,425 crore.

Similarly, the Ministry of Railways has been allocated funds worth ₹2,52,000 crore for capital expenditure against ₹2,40,000 crore allocated in budget 2023-24. The revised allocation to the ministry has been kept unchanged at ₹2,40,000 crore for the current financial year.

The budget has announced several measures for the railways. Three major economic railway corridor programmes will be implemented. These corridors are energy, mineral and cement corridors, port connectivity corridors, and high-traffic density corridors.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in the budget speech that the projects have been identified under PM Gati Shakti for enabling multi-modal connectivity. They will improve logistics efficiency and reduce cost,” she said.  

“The resultant decongestion of the high-traffic corridors will also help in improving operations of passenger trains, resulting in safety and higher travel speed for passengers. Together with dedicated freight corridors, these three economic corridor programmes will accelerate our GDP growth and reduce logistic costs,” she said in the budget speech.

In a post-budget press conference later, Sitharaman said for Viksit Bharat raw materials, building goods, cement, and rare earth, need to move and we need to move them efficiently as well. Also, forty thousand normal rail bogies will be converted to the Vande Bharat standards to enhance the safety, convenience and comfort of passengers.