Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has proposed a blueprint for the railways in the Union Budget 2021-22 to be implemented with budgetary support of Rs 1,10, 055 crore, of which Rs 1,07,700  crore is for capital expenditure. 

The minister said the Indian Railways will have a National Rail Plan for up to 2030 with an aim to create a “future-ready railway system”. 

She said western dedicated freight corridor and Eastern dedicated freight corridor will be commissioned by June 2022 and 100% electrification of broad-gauge routes will be done by December 2023.

Metro Lite and Metro Neo has been planned for Tier 2 cities and peripheral areas of Tier 1 cities. The minister allocated Rs 63,000 crore for the Chennai Metro and Rs 25,000 crore for West Bengal projects.

Big focus was also on the ‘green railways’ project and railway safety fund. 

“High density network and highly utilised network routes will be provided with an indigenously developed automatic protection system that eliminated train collision due to human error,” she said.