Three new economic corridors for railways, says Finance Minister in speech

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announces three new economic corridors for railways while introducing the Interim Budget for 2024 in the Lok Sabha

Energy, mineral and cement corridor, a port connectivity corridor and a high traffic density corridor will be set up, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in her Budget speech | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Touching upon measures that will be taken to expand India’s railway infrastructure, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced three major railway economic corridors. These include an energy, mineral and cement corridor, a port connectivity corridor and a high traffic density corridor.

Ms. Sitharaman said that railway projects have been identified under the PM Gati Shakti Yojana for enabling multi-modal connectivity. These will “improve logistics efficiency and reduce costs,” she said.

She also highlighted that decongestion of high traffic corridors will result in improving operations, which in turn would “result in safety and higher travel speeds for passengers.”

Ms. Sitharaman emphasised that these corridors, along with dedicated freight corridors, will “accelerate our GDP and reduce logistic costs.”

She announced that 40,000 normal rail bogeys will be converted to Vande Bharat standards, “to enhance safety, convenience and safety of passengers.”

Ms. Sitharaman also touched upon the aviation sector, saying that it has been “galvanized” in the past 10 years, and that the number of airports has increased to 149. In her speech, she indicated that expansion of existing and development of new airports would continue.

The roll-out of air connectivity to tier-2 and tier-3 schemes under Udaan scheme has been successful and Indian carriers have pro-actively placed orders for over 1,000 new aircraft, she shared.