- By Talib Khan
- Fri, 17 Jan 2020 05:55 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
New Delhi | Jagran Business Desk: Arun Jaitley was the first Finance Minister to jointly present the General Budget and the Railway Budget. He did this on 1 February 2017. Earlier, both these budgets have been presented separately. The Rail Budget was last presented separately on 25 February 2016.
In 2017, the 92-year tradition of presenting the railway budget and the general budget separately came to an end. Since the merger of the Railway Budget into the General Budget, several major announcements have been made for the Indian Railways by the government. Here are the announcements made by the government since the Railway Budget’s inclusion in the General Budget for the welfare of the Indian Railways.
Budget announcements for the year 2017
In 2017, the first joint budget was presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. In this budget, Jaitley allocated Rs 1.3 lakh crore for Indian Railways. This was the largest allocation in the history of Indian Railways. This was a historic moment for the Indian Railways. In the budget of 2017, Jaitley paid special attention to passenger safety, development works, cleanliness and finance and accounting reforms. At the same time, in an unprecedented initiative, Jaitley also proposed listing of railway subsidiaries like IRCTC, IRCON and IRFC in the market.
Budget announcements for the year 2018
Like in the year 2017, in 2018, the Railways were given a good allocation in the budget. The Finance Minister increased the expenditure for railways to a record Rs 1.48 lakh crore this year. Capital expenditure was given more attention in this budget. This allocation was focused on increasing the railway's capacity. This included renewal and doubling of tracks, change of gage and modernization of 600 railway stations.
Budget announcements for the year 2019
In this year's budget, the allocation for railways increased further and reached a maximum of Rs 1.6 lakh crore. This allocation was focused on making rail travel comfortable and enjoyable for all people, hence more attention was paid to passenger amenities. Special attention was also paid to the safety of passengers. India has become the first country in the world, which has completely electrified the railways. India is also producing the first high-speed bullet train, which will run between Ahmedabad to Mumbai.