Railway infra would need an investment of 50 lakh crores between 2018 and 2030; PPP to be used to unleash faster development and delivery of passenger freight services, says Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her first budget speech on Rail Budget .
Railway Budget 2019-20 highlights-
- Massive programme of railway station modernization to be launched this year.
- Railways to be encouraged to invest more in suburban railways through SPV structures such as Rapid Regional Transport System; more PPP initiatives to be encouraged in rail sector.
RRTS
- Railway infrastructure will need an investment of Rs 50 lakh crore between 2018 and 2030. Since the expenditure is huge per annum, it could decades to complete the projects, it’s necessary to privatise.
- A Public-Private partnership will usher the new dawn of Indian railway. A PPP will make services better and faster.
- The government has given a massive push to all forms of physical connectivity via :-
- PMGSY
- Industrial corridors
- Dedicated freight corridors
- Bharatmala
- Sagarmala
- Jal Marg vikas
- UDAN schemes
- Government envisions using rivers for cargo transportation, which will also decongest roads and railways.
- India’s first indigenous payment ecosystem for transport based on National Common Mobility Card was launched PM in March 2019, enabling people to pay multiple types of transport charges.
- 657 km of metro rail network has become operational in the country
Delhi Metro
- Schemes such as Bharat Mala, Sagarmala and UDAN are bridging rural urban divide and improving our transport infrastructure.
