Nagpur: Though there will be no new announcements of trains or railway projects in the budget that will be presented by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1, 2021, due to the high revenue deficit owing to Covid-19, the Indian Railways is likely to opt for more high speed and dedicated freight corridors.
The overall thrust of the budget is expected to push hard for spending on infrastructure and building capacity to create jobs and speed up growth in various sectors.
The Indian Railways’ maiden draft, the National Rail Plan (NRP), which was released last month, aims to develop Nagpur-Hyderabad (NHIC) & Delhi-Nagpur (DNIC) as industrial corridors under its National Industrial Corridor Development Programme.
The two industrial corridor projects are among the 11 projects to be developed in four phases up to 2024-25. Apart from the two industrial corridors, the draft NRP also aims to establish a dedicated freight corridor (DFC) between North-South between Delhi-Chennai via Itarsi-Nagpur-Vijayawada.
It also envisages two high-speed railway (HSR) projects between Nagpur-Varanasi (855km) and Mumbai-Nagpur (789km). The budget is expected to make some announcements in this direction.
Railway analyst Alok Patel says, “Aim will mainly be to plan for borrowing more money from markets through IRFC and international development banks to increase railway infrastructure spending. High-priority projects like electrification, doubling, tripling and quadrupling of trunk routes (Mumbai-Nagpur-Howrah & Delhi-Nagpur-Chennai) will get funding in line with 2024 targets for capacity enhancements.”
Patel expects funds for speed upgrades to existing routes in Vidarbha from 110-120 kmph to 130-160 kmph between Ballarshah-Nagpur-Itarsi and Akola-Nagpur-Gondia routes are to be upgraded to 130 kmph immediately and 160 kmph over the next few years.
Bharatiya Yatri Kendra (BYK) general secretary Basant Shukla says, “Key areas of concern may be low Central support expected for non-priority projects like Nagpur-Nagbhid and Wardha-Yavatmal-Nanded lines. Operational projects like MEMU car shed in Nagpur, improvement of amenities at stations in Vidarbha, wagon repair shop at Badnera are likely to see limited fund allocations if any.”
Patel feels projects like Nagpur broad gauge metro, Nagpur station redevelopment, east-west dedicated freight corridor, north-south dedicated freight corridor, Mumbai-Nagpur, and Nagpur-Varanasi bullet train projects will continue in parallel and won't find significant mentions in the budget. This is because these projects will be financed mainly by private investors and international agencies. The process will take time to complete.