Union Budget 2025: National Rail Plan, dedicated corridor projects missing from Railway budget
"The share of rail freight movement is only 27 per cent, and the NRP was envisaged to increase the share to 45 per cent. However, the NRP is not featured either in the economic survey or the budget," said Elangovan;
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CHENNAI: One of the glaring shortcomings of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's record eighth budget was the National Rail Plan (NRP) and the dedicated corridor projects, which were conspicuously absent in the budget.
Worse, the NRP was not even featured in the economic survey. Also, the union finance minister has proposed another monetisation plan without clarifying the progress of the earlier one, from which the government estimated it would mop up to over Rs 1.2 lakh crore.
R Elangovan, former vice president of DREU (Dakshin Railway Employees Union), one of the recognised trade unions of the Southern Railway (SR) zone, told DT Next that first, they proposed a 30-year National Rail Plan in 2022 encompassing Rs 38.5 lakh crore investment to revamp the rail infrastructure to decongest the network and increase train speed.
"The share of rail freight movement is only 27 per cent, and the NRP was envisaged to increase the share to 45 per cent. However, the NRP is not featured either in the economic survey or the budget," added Elangovan.
In the 2024 interim budget, the union government proposed to develop 41,000 km of tracks for dedicated freight corridors and express corridors at an investment of Rs 11 lakh crore in six to eight years to operate more trains and eliminate waiting lists.
"There is no mention of it in the regular budget or economic survey. There is a one-line mention of Vande Bharat trains and Kavach. There are no details of what kind of infra is needed and what has been done so far?" Elangovan added.
"Under the earlier National Monetisation pipeline, the union government proposed to mop up Rs 1.25 lakh crore through railways alone, which included privatisation of 90 trains and station redevelopment. What happened to that? Without explaining the progress of the earlier announcement, the minister has announced another monetisation plan for 2025-30. She has set a Rs 10 lakh crore target," added the DREU former vice president.