 "railway")
The Ministry of Railways has spent 76 per cent of its allocated budgetary capital expenditure for 2024-25 (FY25) in the first nine months of the financial year, according to estimates from Indian Railways.
The ministry has spent Rs 1.91 trillion from gross budgetary support, Rs 824 crore from external resources, and Rs 8,733 crore from extra-budgetary resources (public-private partnership) on infrastructure creation.
In total, the ministry has spent Rs 2.02 trillion of the budgeted Rs 2.65 trillion as of January 5, a government official said. As of December 31, the railways’ capital expenditure (capex) execution was Rs 4,975 crore more than the previous year.
At the same time in the preceding financial year, the ministry had spent 75 per cent of its budgeted capex. In recent years, the ministry has changed its practices to ensure the front-loading of capex, reversing the earlier trend of being unable to absorb its budgeted infrastructure spending.
Of the Rs 2.52 trillion allotted to the ministry from central government coffers, Rs 81,713 crore has been spent on capacity augmentation, which is 68 per cent of its allocated budget for new lines, doubling, and expansion works.
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Expenditure on safety-related works such as level crossings, over- and under-bridges, track renewals, bridges, and signalling has already reached 82 per cent of the allocated budget of Rs 34,414 crore.
“For rolling stock, the budgetary provision was Rs 50,903 crore. Of this, Rs 40,354 crore has been spent by December 2024, which is 79 per cent of the budget allotted,” the official said.
The budget for customer amenities has only been utilised to half of its allocated value, at Rs 8,238 crore by December. With three months to go, the ministry would need to spend 46 per cent of its remaining customer infrastructure.
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