Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, while presenting Interim Budget 2024-25 on Thursday, announced three major economic railway corridor programmes to be implemented soon.

“These are energy, mineral and cement corridors, port connectivity corridors, and high traffic density corridors,” she said.

Sitharaman said the railway projects have been identified under the PM Gati Shakti to enable multi-modal connectivity. They will improve logistics efficiency and reduce cost.

The finance minister said the resultant decongestion of the high-traffic corridors will also help improve 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.

The Union finance minister further announced that 40,000 normal rail bogies will be elevated to the Vande Bharat standards to enhance safety, convenience and comfort of passengers.

Meanwhile, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said an unprecedented budget allocation has been made for the railway sector in the Interim Budget for the financial year 2024-25, which was presented by the Union Finance Minister.

Vaishnaw informed that the Indian Railways has been allocated a total of Rs 2.52 lakh-crore outlay for the financial year 2024-25.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi changed the entire strategy (for the Railways) over the last 10 years, and now the focus is on investment to modernise the Railways. For this year, the budget that has been allocated for the Railways is Rs 2.52 lakh crore,” the railway minister said.

Highlighting the budget allocation of several states in the Railways sector, Vaishnaw said, “In a land where so much innovation is happening, Tamil Nadu has received an outstanding outlay of Rs 6,331 crore to carry out several rail infrastructure and safety projects.”

“Kerala has received an exceptional outlay of Rs 2,744 crore for several rail infrastructure and safety projects,” the railways minister said, adding Himachal Pradesh is set to get Rs 2,681 crore for similar projects.

Stating that 100 per cent electrification of the railway network has been achieved in Haryana, Vaishnaw informed that Rs 2,861 crore has been allocated for the development of railways in the state.

In her budget speech, Sitharaman, while making a mention of the aviation sector, said the expansion of existing airports and development of new airports would be carried out expeditiously. “The aviation sector has been galvanized in the past ten years. Number of airports has doubled to 149,” she added.

The minister said rollout of air connectivity to tier-two and tier-three cities under UDAN scheme has been widespread.”Five hundred and seventeen new routes are carrying 1.3 crore passengers. Indian carriers have pro-actively placed orders for over 1000 new aircrafts,” she added.

“We have a fast-expanding middle class and rapid urbanization is taking place. Metro Rail and NaMo Bharat can be the catalyst for the required urban transformation. Expansion of these systems will be supported in large cities focusing on transit-oriented development,” she said.