Indian Railways place in national budget discourse has ended since its budget was merged with the central budget. In recent years, the government's vision for the railways, as reflected in the budget speech, has been reduced to just a few lines. Even those 2 lines were denied in this budget.
One expected some mention of rail safety, which has been under considerable stress recently, and an update on the interim budget announcement of three economic corridors and the upgrade of 40,000 rail coaches. Or on track upgrades and completion of big ticket projects like J&K line, DFCs, HSR etc.
As for the numbers, it was almost a foregone conclusion that the Operating Ratio would be kept just below 100 through the now-familiar accounting practice of severely curtailing the allotment for Depreciation, and it turned out to be right. It was also fully expected that the government would continue its Capex in rail sector by allocating resources through General Budgetary Support.
The freight receipts are disappointing at ₹1,64,700 crore, only 4.5% increase over 22-23. While investments in IR continue to rise and we are told that DFCs are nearly complete, IR fails to keep its modal share. And perhaps even the government does not have much hope of improvement as IR’s freight receipts for 2024-25 are pegged to estimated to increase only by 5.9% to ₹1,74,500 crore.
