Railway Budget 2014-15 was presented today by the Union Minister of Railways Sadananda Gowda. The focus of the budget was on project completion, encouraging private participation and upgrading railway operations.

As stated in the Budget speech, projects of Indian Railways are suffering heavily because of time and cost overruns. In the last 10 years, 99 New Line projects worth Rs 60,000 crore were sanctioned.  Of these, only one is complete till date.

In terms of funding, the Budget proposes resources mobilized through PSU surplus, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Public Private Partnership (PPP). Funds to the tune of about Rs 5 lakh crore i.e. around Rs 50,000 crore per year is required for the ongoing projects over the next 10 years.

Budget Highlights:

• Plan outlay under budgetary sources is Rs 47,650 crore, which is higher by Rs 9,383 crore over 2013-14

• 58 new trains to be introduced which include five Jansadharan Trains, five Premium Trains, six AC Express Trains, 27 Express Trains, eight Passenger Trains, two MEMU services and five DEMU services. 11 existing trains to be extended

• Provision of Rs 1,785 crore for Road-under-bridges and Road-over-bridges, to be built in collaboration with state governments

• Bullet trains are proposed by starting off with an already identified Mumbai-Ahmadabad route

• Rs 5,116 crore allocated for projects in the North-East which is a jump of 54 per cent over the allocation of 2013-14. There are 23 projects underway in the Northeast, of which 11 are National Projects

• Indian Railways has taken up port connectivity on priority through PPP mode of funding in tandem with Sagar Mala Project of Port Development. Railways will facilitate connectivity to the new and upcoming ports through private participation. So far in principle approval has been granted for building rail connectivity to the Ports of Jaigarh, Dighi, Rewas, Hazira, Tuna, Dholera and Astranga under Participative Model Policy of Indian Railways amounting to over Rs 4,000 crore

• Cabinet approval sought for allowing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Railway sector

• Mumbai city will get 864 additional electric multiple units (EMUs) over a period of two years

• Implementation of Eastern and Western Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFCs) will be closely monitored. The World Bank loan agreement for Kanpur-Mughalsarai section of Eastern corridor of Dedicated Freight Corridor will be signed in the current year for US$ 1100 million. Award of nearly 1000 km of civil construction contracts is targeted for FY15

• Budget estimates total receipts of Rs 1,64,374 crore and total expenditure at Rs 1,49,176 crore for 2014-15