Capital expenditure by Indian Railways for FY25 has crossed over ₹2,00,000 crore; and is at nearly 76 per cent of the allocated Budget, a senior official told businessline.

As per official estimates, ₹2,02,003 crore has been spent till the first week of January, while ₹1,198 crore has spent in the first five days of January, a report accessed said.

Budgetary allocation for the Railways was ₹2.65 lakh crore for FY25.

An internal report said, nearly, ₹1,92,446 crore was spent as part of the Gross Budgetary Support – or 76 per cent of the allocated ₹2,52,200 crore; while IEBR (internal and extra budgetary resources) – which includes market borrowings – stood at ₹824 crore, or 27 per cent of the Budget allocated ₹3,000 crore. The Extra Budgetary Resources (market borrowings) for PPP (public private partnerships) stood at ₹8,733 crore, or 87 per cent of the Budget allocated ₹10,000 crore.

A year-on-year comparison shows, substantial increase in Railway spending in FY25. For instance, spending under the Gross Budgetary Support was up 4 per cent y-oy; while borrowings were down – 5 per cent down for Extra Budgetary Resources (PPP) and IEBR was down 35 per cent, respectively.

“In actuality, market borrowings for the fiscal are substantially lower, down 35 per cent till December. Borrowings in the earlier fiscal, till December, was ₹1,270 crore, while this fiscal it was at ₹824 crore. This implies, Railways, is utilising its own funds better, specially post greater Budgetary support,” the official said.

Till January, the highest spending by Railways, amounting to over Rs 82,000 crore, has been for capacity augmentation projects. These include the development of new lines, gauge conversions, doubling of tracks, traffic facilities, railway electrification, investments in public sector undertakings, and metropolitan transport. Capacity augmentation spending was at 68 per cent of the Budgetary allocation of Rs 120,794 crore.

The second-largest expenditure has been on rolling stock, with an outlay of around ₹40,000 crore; followed by ₹28,000 crore allocated for safety-related initiatives in the current fiscal year. Safety expenditure is already at 82 per cent of the Budgetary allocation of ₹34,412 crore, the report said.

Customer amenities

Spending on customer amenities stood at ₹8,376 crore, at 55 per cent of Budget allocation of ₹15,315 crore.

The 2024-25 Budget adjusted allocations for Indian Railways’ public enterprises and other areas such as train procurement.

Despite these adjustments, there has been a continued focus on modernizing Vande Bharat trains, addressing congestion, and enhancing freight movement, particularly in sectors like energy, cement, and port connectivity.