Union Budget 2021: 100% Railways Electrification, Public-Private Partnerships, New Metro Tech & More

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, on Monday, proposed 100% electrification of railways by 2030 along with plans to boost the share of public transport in urban areas during the Union Budget 2021 address. The government has announced an outlay of INR 18,000 Cr for the same for the 2020-21 period.

Stressing on the need for greater commercialisation, the FM allocated INR 1,70,000 Cr as budgetary allocation for the transport sector for 2020-21.  She added that the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will be encouraged to pursue “greater commercialisation of highways to raise finance”.

Besides proposing highway works in several states such as Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Kerala and Assam, all incidentally poll-bound states, the Minister also talked about bringing in metrolite and metroneo technologies, which are rail-guided urban transport systems with rubber-tyred electric coaches powered by an overhead traction system running on elevated or at-grade sections, in tier 2 and tier 3 cities.

The Minister also mentioned that the eastern and western dedicated freight corridors will be commissioned by June 2022. Moreover, a section of these will be made through the public-private partnership model, with the Indian Railways also monetising these corridors.

For the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP), the government said INR 103 lakh Cr would be spent over a five-year-period across 65 projects spanning various sectors such as housing, energy, healthcare, clean water, irrigation, transport terminals, logistics and warehousing.

The Minister added that a National Logistics Policy is in the works, but didn’t delve into details about the same.

To be updated…

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