Budget 2024: AI analyst predicts nearly 2.5 lakh cr boost for railways

Indian Railway could receive a budgetary impetus in the range of Rs 2-2.25 lakh crore, the AI-enabled equity market analytics platform Jarvis has projected.

In its report ahead of the Union Budget 2024 for FY25, Jarvis predicted that improving rail infrastructure to meet rise in passenger and freight traffic and modernisation of facilities would be priorities along with connectivity and the expansion of network, for which the Centre could allot nearly Rs 2.25 lakh crore this fiscal year.

Among priorities that the railway ministry should focus on is new technology, the report said. Artificial Intelligence, or AI, and automation of services were components that the railways have to gradually introduce to ensure sustainability besides safety in train travel, Financial Express quoted the report as stating.

The report looked ahead at a few obvious challenges, too, that Indian Railway would have to contend with over the upcoming months. Chief among these was garnering the humongous amount of funds that the world’s fourth-largest railway network requires to meet its expenditure of maintenance, development and execution of new projects.

There is the need to draw more funds from the private sector, the report concluded.

Since 2017, the Railway Budget was merged with the Union Budget because no other country in the world has a separate budget for its railways.

In the Interim Budget earlier this year, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had allocated Rs 2,52,200 crore to the railways in terms of gross budgetary support and further boosted the fund with an added amount of Rs 10,000 crore that was obtained from resources beyond the Budget.

When Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presents the Union Budget 2024 on July 23 this year for the fiscal year 2024-’25 (FY25), the focus is expected to be on the improvement of facilities for the common Indian rail passenger as well as augmenting expenditure for the development of infrastructure. Experts and industry watchers expect a big push in the Budget for Indian Railways as well as the roadways of the nation.