Railways fix Rs.35,000-cr expansion targets

While setting a 9-km per day track laying targets, Indian Railways has set aside a staggering amount of Rs. 35,000-cr for doubling and capacity expansion including construction of new lines, gauge conversion and doubling of capacity for the next fiscal. To achieve this, it has decided to import US-made track-laying machines that can lay around 1.5 km of tracks per day as against the 100 meters per day tracks it currently lays manually. Out of the total budget, around Rs. 10,000-cr will be spent on construction of railway lines of dedicated freight corridors connecting Delhi to Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Mumbai and Ludhiana in Punjab to Dankuni in West Bengal. In its entirety, the country's largest transporter plans to invest a whopping Rs.1.31 lakh-cr, the highest-ever for capacity expansion in the next financial year and has secured Rs. 55,000-cr from the finance ministry as gross budgetary support, claimed railway minister.