Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Minister of Railways on February 1, held an interaction with media persons of Northeast in connection with the fund allotted in the interim Budget 2024-25 for Railways. Chetan Kumar Shrivastava, General Manager of N. F. Railway, and senior railway officials of Headquarters were also present. While addressing the media persons, the Minister of Railways informed that a capital outlay of more than Rs. 2.5 lakh crores have been provided in the budget for the Indian Railways. The Railway Minister mentioned that three major railway corridor programs will be implemented as announced by the Finance Minister in her budget speech. These are the Energy, mineral, and cement corridor; Port-connectivity corridor, and High-traffic density corridor. They will improve logistics efficiency and reduce transportation costs and will improve safety for passenger trains as well. 40,000 normal railway coaches will be converted to Vande Bharat standards, the Finance Minister mentioned.

The Minister of Railways said that 60 stations in the Northeast are being redeveloped with world-class amenities/facilities. The Minister also informed that the One Station One Product stall operational all over NFR is providing a direct selling market to locally produced items which are getting a good response from passengers with profitable growth.

During the interaction, the Minister said that the physical progress of all the ongoing projects in the Northeastern region is advancing at a good pace. Despite being in the Himalayan region and running through tough terrains, project works are being done on a 24×7 basis for early completion.

Moreover, the Gross Budget Allocation for Railway infrastructure projects in Northeast for the FY 2024-25 is Rs. 10,369 crores. It is 388% higher as compared to the average budget allocation of Rs. 2,122 crores during 2009-14. This year’s budget allocation shows unprecedented growth in several segments like new line and doubling projects, track renewal works, traffic facilities, road safety works, bridge works, signaling, workshop modernisation, customer amenities, etc. The Minister of Railways also informed that an investment of Rs. 81,941 crores is being made in the entire Northeastern region for the development of Railway infrastructure.

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