NEW DELHI: The railway ministry has proposed to step up its capital expenditure by 13 per cent next year as it seeks to ramp up and modernise its operations with the roads and highways ministry too seeking a 10 per cent increase in its allocation. Railways has proposed that its capex budget be enhanced from this year’s Rs 1.6 lakh crore to over Rs 1.8 lakh crore, higher than the business-as-usual growth of around 10 per cent.
This includes nearly Rs 80,000 crore as gross budgetary support from the last budget’s allocation of Rs 70,000 crore, sources told TOI. The government’s largest departmental enterprise has argued that over the last few years, there has been a significant focus on augmenting capacity and modernising creaky infrastructure, resulting in the allocation often becoming a stumbling block. This is despite attempts to get greater private participation. For instance this year, it is expected to spend around Rs 1.55 lakh crore of the capex budget despite several projects coming to a standstill during the lockdown period.
