Three major Railway economic corridor programmes to be implemented: FM Sitharaman

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday Feb 1 announced the development of three major ‘Railway economic corridors programs’ during her Interim Budget 2024-2025 speech in Lok Sabha on Thursday.

"These are energy, mineral, and cement corridors; port connectivity corridors; and high traffic density corridors," she said.

The Finance Minister added that the projects have been identified under PM Gati Shakti for enabling multi-modal connectivity. They will improve logistics efficiency and reduce costs.".

FM Nirmala Sitharaman said that "the resultant decongestion of the high-traffic corridors will also help in improving the operations of passenger trains, resulting in safety and higher travel speeds for passengers.".

She said together with dedicated freight corridors, these three economic corridor programs will accelerate India's GDP growth and reduce logistic costs.

During the speech, she also informed that the Kekeyail infrastructure projects, including Metro Rail and Namo Bharat, will be expanded to more cities.

"Around 40,000 rail bogies will be converted to Vande Bharat coaches," the Finance Minister said.