Total capex of Railway Budget pegged at Rs 1.31 lakh crore: Budget 2017

Talking on Railway Budget, FM Arun Jaitely said, “I feel privileged to present the first combined budget which includes the railways also. We are now in a position tosynergies the investment in railways road, waterways and civil aviation.”

For 2017- 18, the total capital and development expenditure for railways has been pegged at Rs 1.31 lakh crore which includes Rs 55, 000 crore provided by the budgeted government.

Jailtely stated four major areas will be focused under this budget.

They are – passenger safety, capital and development works, cleanliness and lastly financial and accounting reforms.

For passenger safety – a 'Rail Sangrakshak Kosh' will be created with a corpus of Rs 1 lakh crore over a period of five years. Government will lay down clear cut guidelines for the implementation of this Kosh.

Besides seed capital from the government, the railways will arrange the balance from its own resources avenues and other source, added Jaitely.

Unmanned level crossing on broad gates line will be eliminated by 2020. expert international assistance will be harness to safety improvement and maintainces practices.

In the next three years, railway lines have been planned to increase from 2800 kilometer of last budget to 3500 km in 2017-18.

Jaitley further said, "Railways have put up joint venture with 9 states government, 70 projects have been identified for construction and development. Also 25 stations are expected to be allotted for station redevelopment."

500 stations will be made differently like provided with lifts and escalators. It proposed to feed around 7000 station with solar power in medium term. 

To promote cleanliness, the cabinet proposed to introduce a coach mitra facility – a single window to register all coach related complaints and requirement.

Moving on, Jaitely brought in measures to make Indian railways more comptetitive they are -

Railway will implement end-to-end integrated tranportation solution for selected commodities through partnership with logistics players who would provide in both front and back end connectivity.

Rolling stocks and practices would be customed to transport perishable goods especially agriculture products.

However, rail related stocks like tumbled on BSE after the presentation of Railway Budget-  Titagarh Wagons (down 5.39% at Rs 109.65 per share), Kalindee Rail Nirman (down 3.60% at Rs 109.85 per share), Texmaco Rail & Engineering (down3.19% at Rs 103.25 per share), Kernex Microsystems (down 3.88% at 38.35 per share).