2 days Ago
Railway stocks will be in focus on Wednesday morning after the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman chaired the second meeting to review capex for Ministry of Railways in New Delhi. Sitharaman said that the ministry should expedite the conversion of 40,000 normal rail bogies to Vande Bharat standards. This was announced in the Interim Budget 2024-25.
She asked ministry officials to ensure that the capex target for FY 2024-25 is achieved in a time-bound manner, taking forward the momentum achieved in the first 100 days of the Modi government. The Union Finance Minister further told the officials to expedite the implementation of Kavach system in a phased manner and meet the allocated capex target in the stipulated timeframe. To this, the ministry officials informed Sitharaman that Kavach-related works are in progress in over 3000RKm (route kms) on the Delhi-Howrah and Delhi-Mumbai sections.
In a push towards logistics efficiency and reduction of logistics cost related to rail movement, the Budget for 2024-25 provided for three Economic Railway Corridors Programmes identified under the PM Gati Shakti for enabling multi-modal connectivity, including energy, mineral, and cement corridors; port connectivity corridors; and high traffic density corridors. The rail ministry officials informed Sitharaman that 434 railway projects have been identified under three Economic Corridors, totalling 40,900 km with a total investment plan of Rs 11.16 lakh crore.
Under these corridors, 55 projects have already been sanctioned till now with total length of 5,723 kms and investment plan of Rs 1.03 lakh crore. During the current year, 101 projects are to be appraised under the corridor programme, the officials said.
The Union Finance Minister emphasised the importance of improving the "ease of living" for citizens by doubling and electrification of existing railway tracks, as well as the construction of new railway lines in alignment with the Budget capital expenditure. In the case of railways, the capital allocation stood at Rs 2.55 lakh crore for FY25 against revised estimate of Rs 2.
4 lakh crore for FY24. The major allocation has been earmarked for rolling stocks, new lines, doubling and track renewals and electrification, totaling Rs 1.3 lakh crore.
The announcements were seen as net positive for KEC International Ltd, Larsen & Toubro (L&T), Siemens Ltd, Ltd, , KPIL IRCON International Ltd, BEML Ltd, Titagarh Rail, Texmaco, other EPC companies etc..
