 "E-buses to rly track work, Union Cabinet approves Rs 1.18 trillion plans")
The government on Wednesday cleared a slew of schemes and projects totalling Rs. 1.18 trillion, including the deployment of over 10,000 electric buses across cities in the country, the ramp-up of the existing railway line capacity, and the expansion of the Digital India programme. The Vishwakarma scheme, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day speech for artisans and craftspeople, was also approved by the Union Cabinet.
In the latest round of approvals, the PM-eBus Sewa, which seeks to enhance green mobility and augment city bus operations, got the highest allocation at Rs. 57,613 crore. The amount will be spent on buying “around 10,000 new electric buses”, which will be deployed in 169 cities under the public-private partnership (PPP) model. Priority will be given to cities having no organised bus service, Union minister Anurag Thakur said.
In a major boost for railway infrastructure, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved seven multi-tracking projects at an estimated cost of Rs. 32,500 crore. The Union Budget this year had envisaged expansion of the railway network.
The proposed projects, to be fully funded by the Centre, will help increase the existing line capacity, smoothen train operations, reduce congestion, and facilitate ease of travelling and transportation. These will fall under the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan for seamless multi-modal connectivity.
The projects covering 35 districts in nine states — Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Odisha, Jharkhand, and West Bengal — will increase the existing network of Indian Railways by 2,339 km, an official statement said.
To strengthen and nurture the Guru-Shishya tradition among artisans and craftspeople, the Cabinet approved the ‘PM Vishwakarma’ scheme, with an outlay of Rs. 13,000 crore for a period of five years. The scheme will cover 18 traditional trades as of now, such as carpentry, boat making, armourer, blacksmith, hammer and toolkit maker, locksmith, goldsmith, and potter.
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Under the scheme, the beneficiary artisans and craftspeople will be provided a stipend of Rs. 500 per day for upskilling and Rs. 15,000 for procuring modern tools. As part of the working capital, they will be provided credit support in two tranches of Rs. 1 lakh and Rs. 2 lakh at a concessional interest rate of 5 per cent.
The Cabinet also approved the expansion of the Centre’s flagship scheme Digital India, launched in 2015, with a financial outlay of Rs. 14,903 crore. This aims to scale up digital skilling, cybersecurity, e-governance services, and the development of Artificial Intelligence.
Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union minister for communications, electronics and information technology, said Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), the government’s nodal agency for cyber forensics, emergency response and cyber diagnosis, would be massively expanded. The programme will also include the development of cybersecurity tools and the integration of more than 200 sites with the National Cyber Coordination Centre.