New Delhi: This budget makes the highest provision ever for the Railways. Finance minister Arun Jaitley announced a provision of 1.48 lakh crores for the railways. This is 13% more than the previous year and this will mainly be spent for capacity augmentation of the railways. The Mumbai local will be expanded by 90 kilometres and a provision for 11000 crores is made for this purpose.
Safety of the passengers, expansion of the railways, maintenance of the tracks and their security has been stressed in this budget. Most of the 1.48 lakh crore provision will be used for this kind of capacity augmentation works for the railways. The target is to convert the entire railways network to broad gauge. Accordingly, 600 km of new railway lines will be laid and 600 stations will be modernised.
267 unmanned railway crossings will be closed in the next two years. The objective is set to make Wi-Fi available at all stations and trains. Also, the stations and the trains will be equipped with the CCTV cameras from security point of view, said the finance minister in his budget speech. Last year the objective was set for electrification of 4000 km of railway lines. This has been achieved and now the objective is set for electrification of the entire rail network.
There is reassuring news, in the budget, for the rail commuters in Mumbai. There is a provision of 11000 crores for Mumbai rail network expansion and increasing the number of tracks and trains
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