The outlay will include Rs 300bn borrowed from the Indian Railways Finance Corporation (IRFC), Rs 280bn provided through institutional finance and Rs 252bn from public-private partnerships (PPP).

“These are projected figures and do not always materialise in the manner conceived,” says former Railway Board member, Mr Subodh Jain.

Over the next financial year, IR plans to construct 500km of new lines, carry out gauge conversion work on 600 route-km, and track-doubling on 2650km. IR will also renew 4000 route-km of track and electrify 6000km, and intends to purchase 725 new EMU cars and 12,000 freight wagons.

The operating ratio for 2019-20 was 97.4%, and this is expected to decrease to 96.2% in 2020-21.

While passenger revenue has remained static in the past year, freight revenue declined largely due to a reduction in coal, iron-ore and cement traffic.

IR’s total revenue declined from Rs 1445bn in 2018-19 to Rs 1437bn in 2019-20.

In her budget speech on February 1 in the Lok Sabha, India’s lower house of parliament, Sitharaman said that the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)-funded Mumbai - Ahmedabad high-speed project would be “actively pursued”. The minister’s statement comes following recently reported tussles between the central government and government of Maharashtra state over land acquisition for the project.

During 2020-21, IR will undertake the re-development of four railway stations at Amritsar, Sabarmati, Nagpur and Gwalior as PPP schemes, while also implementing plans to run 150 private trains on 100 identified routes, Sitharaman announced.

The minister also announced plans to begin work on the long-pending Bangalore suburban rail project at an estimated cost of Rs 186bn. The central and state governments will each provide 20% of the project cost, with the remaining 60% expected to be generated through borrowing.

IR will launch a tender to construct solar power plants on vacant land alongside the railway, while “iconic stations” will be connected with the Tejas Express semi-high-speed network.

IR plans a PPP scheme to operate refrigerated wagons to enable farmers to transport their produce to larger markets. The refrigerated wagon concept has announced in the past several budgets, but Indian farmers do not appear to be enthused with the idea.