In an obvious reference to his predecessors, Prabu made clear his intention to restructure and modernize India's public transportation system, which has been caught in a downward spiral of declining investment. Priorities include increasing passenger and freight capacity, safety, the acquisition of rolling stock, and high-speed rail
The budget focuses primarily on capacity expansion, with the construction of a second, third, or fourth track along 1,200 kilometers of the network during the 2015–2016 period, at a cost of approximately 1,256 million euros, an 84 percent year-over-year increase in investment in capacity improvements.
Approximately 1,224 million euros have been allocated for the purchase of rolling stock, and approximately 1,347 million euros for construction work on the East and West Dedicated Freight Corridors. Plans have also been announced to build four more such corridors.
Modern and Faster Trains
The prime minister also announced plans to introduce two modern, faster, and more comfortable trains, which will be manufactured domestically.
IR is expected to borrow approximately 2,543 million euros, of which about 835 million will be allocated to PPP (public-private partnership) projects.
In the long term, IR will invest approximately 123,000 million euros over the next five years, broken down as follows:
- 33,968 million euros for capacity improvements and the elimination of bottlenecks.
- 32,595 million euros for network expansion and electrification.
- 24,363 million euros for safety improvements.
- 16,749 million euros for the purchase of rolling stock.
- 15.325 million euros for high-speed rail projects.
Over the next five years, IR will increase its passenger transport capacity from 21 million to 30 million passengers per day. The network will grow by 20 percent, from 114,000 to 138,000 kilometers. Meanwhile, freight capacity will increase from 1,000 to 1.5 million metric tons.
