The Narendra Modi government continues to prioritize infrastructure development by allocating the highest share to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and Railways in the interim budget for 2024-25, after the Ministry of Defence. These departments were also the three ministries with the highest allocations last year.
On Thursday, in the interim budget, the defense ministry was allocated Rs 620 crore. It is followed by MoRTH (Rs 278 crore) and Railways (Rs 255 crore). This time roads and railways received a total of Rs 533 crore. According to budget documents analyzed by News18, allocations to the two ministries have increased significantly over the past few years.
The allocation to these two ministries has increased more than three times compared to 2020-21.
The Ministry of Defense received the highest share in the 2020-21 to 2024-25 (medium-term) budget. But for roads and railways, the allocation did not increase significantly until after 2023-24, making it into the top three ministries. Roads and Railways did not even feature in the top five in 2020-21.
In 2023-24, MoRTH was allocated Rs 270 crore, while expenditure on railways reached the highest ever of Rs 240 crore. The two trail only the Ministry of Defence, which received Rs 594 crore.
In 2022-23, MoRTH ranks third with a dedicated allocation of Rs 199 crore. For Railways, the amount was Rs 140 crore, the fifth highest allocation for the year.
In Budget 2021-22, Railways received an allocation of Rs 1.1 billion, ranking seventh; in the previous Budget 2020-21, Railways received Rs 0.72 billion, ranking eighth among all ministries .
In the 2020-21 budget, the Roads Ministry received Rs 0.91 billion, ranking seventh, while in the 2021-22 budget, the Highways Ministry received Rs 118 crore, ranking sixth among ministries.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in her budget speech on Thursday that 40,000 regular railway bogies will be retrofitted as per Vande Bharat standards to enhance safety, convenience and comfort of passengers.
She also emphasized that three economic railway corridor plans for energy, minerals and cement, port connectivity and high traffic density will be implemented.
“These projects were identified under the leadership of Prime Minister Gati Shakti to enable multi-modal transport. They will increase logistics efficiency and reduce costs,” she said.
The minister also said that the resulting relief from congestion on high traffic corridors will help improve passenger train operations, leading to improved passenger safety and higher travel speeds.
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