Indian Railways’ Massive Infra Push: Achieves Highest Ever Capital Expenditure In FY19 At Rs 1.32 Lakh Crore

In the hot pursuit of a huge infra push, the Indian Railways has achieved its highest ever capital expenditure of Rs 1.32 lakh crore in the 2018-19 FY, reports Financial Express.

According to the sources, a good drag from the extra budgetary resources (EBRs) in FY19 has made Indian Railways achieve targets under all the heads.

Investment in rolling stock, part of EBR is expected to be around Rs 24,000 crore against a target of Rs 27,852 crore for the FY19. The gross budgetary support (GBS) has been retained at the revised estimate of Rs 53,060 crore. However, Rs 5,000 crore from GBS for identified ten ‘nationally important’ projects have been moved to EBR and the freed amount has been deployed towards other projects.

The Ministry of Finance has agreed to the proposal of a service debt which the Indian Railways seeks to take under the EBR to fund ‘nationally important’ projects. The total cost of 10 projects is around Rs 50,000 crore.

With the extra borrowings made through IFRC, the financial wing of Indian Railways, the institutional finance portion is expected to be around Rs 23,000 crore.

The Indian Railways is expected to raise $750 million from the Asian Development Bank through its financing arm IRFC which will help the transporter stick to its capex plan for FY20.