Railways spends record ₹1.42 lakh crore on capex in H1

New Delhi: In the first half of the current fiscal year, Indian Railways spent a record 56.5% of the ₹2.52 lakh crore allocated in its annual budget for safety, infrastructure and modernisation, according to officials.

Capital expenditure utilisation till the end of September stood at ₹1.42 lakh crore, they said.

"At 56%, safety related works have the highest spend ratio with ₹22,286 crore utilisation of the ₹39,456 crore earmarked under this head," a senior official told ET. This includes work related to automatic train protection technology KAVACH, as well as track renewals, road overbridges, bridges and level crossings.


The highest expenditure was under the capacity augmentation head, which includes new lines, doubling, gauge conversion, electrification and metropolitan transport. Under this head, utilisation stood at ₹49,001 crore from a budgetary allocation of ₹1,09,986 crore.

The national transporter has spent ₹25,948 crore on rolling stock, which is 46% of the ₹56,693 crore allocated for this purpose. Modern Vande Bharat trains, more coaches, locomotives and wagons are procured under this head.

Another ₹5,863 crore capex was for customer amenities from the ₹ 12,004 crore budgeted amount.