In the Union Budget 2024-25 presented in Parliament on July 23, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi allocated Rs.2.652 trillion (lakh crore) towards capital expenditure in the Railways.
The sum is a marginal increase of roughly 2 per cent over the revised estimate for 2023-24. In what can be construed as the government’s neglect of the preferred mode of long-distance travel for the majority of India’s population, the word “railways” figured only once in the entire Budget speech that was delivered by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. Even this reference was tangential and made when she spoke in general terms about the government’s focus on essential infrastructure.
Soon after the Budget was presented, Union Minister for Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw said at a press conference that a whopping Rs.1.08 trillion of the budgetary allocation would be used for enhancing safety measures for the national carrier.
This was expected in view of the fact that there have been several train accidents in the recent past. Between July 20 and July 21, three goods trains derailed in three separate accidents in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and West Bengal. On July 26, a fourth goods train derailed near Bhubaneshwar.
There were no deaths reported from these derailments. However, there were several casualties in the three accidents that took place since June 2023. On July 18, eight coaches of the Chandigarh-Dibrugarh Express derailed in Gon.