Railway focusing on faster and pollution less travel in future. This budget may likely show the road map of future travels. However, there is very little chance of a direct increase in passenger fares, but the freight rate and other charges might be increased to recover the losses due to the pandemic.
Apart from a few high-speed corridors in the country including Mumbai Nagpur, around a dozen of light and faster trains with aluminium bodies may be announced in this budget.
Keep in mind the election of UP and other states, bullet train project between Delhi and Varanasi will also likely to get space in the budget announcement. 'Kayakalp' of 500 stations across the country and formation of rail development authority maybe also get space in the union budget of 2022. Last year the government had allocated Rs 1 10 055 crores to the Railways. This year finance minister Sitharaman may increase the outlay for the railways by around 20 percent.
In addition to that expansion of Vande Bharat train sets, new wagons, and provisions for the use of Hyperloop for the next financial year" likely to be part of the budget announcement on Monday. Plans are likely to be implemented for the development of more projects like Tejas to connect various tourist destinations across the country. Also, more emphasis would be given to the development of dedicated freight corridors.
Sources say that the special focus in the Rail Budget will be on the Golden Quadrilateral Routes. Semi-high speed trains are able to run around 180 to 200 kmph may be announced on these routes. These trains can be like Vande Bharat Express.
Apart from that several other intercity trains may get new rakes on the line of Deccan Queen express. These rakes may be also equipped with dining cars similar to Deccan Queen.
"During the Covid period, most of the earnings of the Railways came from freight. Therefore, an effort would be made by the Railways to prepare different freight corridors which will also reduce the pressure on passenger trains. For these, the government might involve some private companies. Some of the programs included in the National Rail Plan may also be taken up for phased implementation with the objective of increasing the average speed of the freight trains" said Subodh Jain, a former member of the railway board.
"Covid has also affected the suburban service for an extended period. This provides an opportunity to upgrade the suburban infrastructure on the pattern of Metro rails i.e. matching of platform level and coach floor level, the precise location of train stoppage etc. In this budget hopefully, the focus will be on rehabilitation of existing suburban services along with accelerated progress on other ongoing suburban projects" future added Subodh Jain.
