Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will deliver the run 8 to National Rail Plan when she presents the Union Budget on February 1. It is estimated that the capital expenditure gross budgetary support to Indian Railways in the upcoming budget will be over Rs 1.3 lakh crore.
How railways fit in Modi government's five trillion dollar vision can be gauged from the fact that the Union Commerce Ministry has listed the Railways among the 27 Champion sectors of the Indian economy. The government has formulated a National Rail Plan to highball its capacity by 2030 that will cater to the growing demand up to 2050.
In order to stay ahead of time, the focus of the Railway Budget will be to accelerate the 'Gati' (speed) of rail modernisation, environment friendliness and equitable development.
2022-23 Rail Budget's Hotshots
- As per ICICI direct estimate, the gross budgetary support (capex) for the Railways in the FY 2022-23 will be Rs 1.3 lakh crore.
- The Budget is likely to significantly increase the fund allocation towards station redevelopment with 120 stations targeted to come under renovation.
- Under Railway Station Redevelopment Programme, the budget will aim to redevelop 400 railway station across India at Rs 1 lakh crore through PPP mode.
- A big push for track electrification in order to achieve 100 percent electrification of the country's broad gauge network by December 2023.
- High emphasis on unused vacant land parcels for setting up of Land-Based Solar Plants to accomplish its goal of ‘Net Zero Carbon Emission’ by 2030.
- A fillip to Vande Bharat express trains.
- Funds for East-West Corridor, which will pass through Odisha's Jharsuguda and Rourkela. The project deadline is 2041.
- Expansion of KAVACH to more route kilometres.
Will Odisha Express Chug Faster?
As per highly placed sources in the ECoR here, the allocation for Odisha in the upcoming rail budget is likely to be in the range of Rs 6,500 - Rs 6,600 crore. Last year, the allocation for Odisha was Rs 5,921 crore.
Below are given the rail projects list of Odisha.
Among the 12 projects listed above, the budgetary support will be for the following projects.
New Line Projects
Increased allocations are likely for the following.
- Khurda Road - Bolangir New Line
- Sukinda Road - Angul New Line
- Talcher - Bimalagarh New Line
- Jeypore - Nabarangpur New Line
- Buramara - Chakulia Road New Line may find a mention in the Pink Book for 2022-23.
- Bansapani - Barbil New Line project may also find a mention in the 2022-23 Pink Book.
Following Doubling Projects Will See Fund Infusion.
- Sambalpur - Talcher
- Jagdalpur - Koraput
- Sambalpur - Titlagarh
- Bansapani - Jakhpura
Besides, more funds will flow for electrification, station redevelopment, passenger amenities and for up-gradation of signalling system.
The Bottomline
Like the last three budgets, the allocation is going to be bigger. But the reality check is how many rupees get utilised. Take the sample case of the following project.
- Khurda - Balangir - Total allocation in 2018-19 and 2019-20 was Rs 524 cr. But utilisation till March end 2020 had been only Rs 258 crore.
- Angul - Sukinda Road - the allocation in 2018-19 and 2019-20 totalled to Rs 250 cr, but utilisation as of March 31, 2020 was Rs 0.
- Talcher - Bimlagarh new line saw a total allocation of Rs 295 crore in 2018-19 and 2019-20, and the utilisation by March-end 2020 was around Rs 290 cr.
As per ECoR sources, the gap in utilisation in all the 3 projects has been due to the delay in land acquisition and also to some extent the lack of forest clearance.