Continuing its dedication towards prioritised infrastructure development, the Narendra Modi government in its interim budget 2024-25 has allocated the highest share to the ministries of road transport and highways and railways only after the defence ministry. Last year too these were the top three ministries in terms of allocations.

On Thursday, in the interim budget, the ministry of defence was allocated Rs 6.2 lakh crore. It was followed by MoRTH at Rs 2.78 lakh crore and railways at Rs 2.55 lakh crore. Collectively, road and railways have been given Rs 5.33 lakh crore this time. As per the budget documents analysed by News18, the two ministries have registered a significant rise in allocations over the last few years.

When compared to 2020-21, the allocations to both ministries have increased more than three times.

The ministry of defence has bagged the highest shares between 2020-21 and 2024-25 (interim) budget. But for road and railways, it was only after 2023-24 that the allocations increased significantly, bringing them into the top three ministries. The roads and railways were not even in the top five positions in 2020-21.

In 2023-24, MoRTH was apportioned Rs 2.70 lakh crore while for railways it was the highest ever outlay at Rs 2.40 lakh crore. These two were only behind the ministry of defence which received Rs 5.94 lakh crore.

In 2022-23, Rs 1.99 lakh crore was earmarked for MoRTH and it was the third-highest allocation. For railways, the amount was Rs 1.40 lakh crore and it was the fifth-highest allocation that year.

In Budget 2021-22, the railways was apportioned Rs 1.10 lakh crore and it was the seventh highest, and before that in 2020-21, it got Rs 0.72 lakh crore – eighth highest among all the ministries.

In the 2020-21 Budget, the road ministry was given Rs 0.91 lakh crore, the seventh highest, while in 2021-22, it got Rs 1.18 lakh crore, the sixth highest among the ministries.

In her budget speech on Thursday, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that 40,000 normal rail bogies will be converted to Vande Bharat standards to enhance the safety, convenience, and comfort of passengers.

She also highlighted that three economic railway corridor programmes will be implemented for energy, mineral and cement, port connectivity, and high traffic density.

“The projects have been identified under the PM Gati Shakti for enabling multi-modal connectivity. They will improve logistics efficiency and reduce cost,” she said.

The minister also said that the resultant decongestion of the high-traffic corridors will help in improving the operations of passenger trains, resulting in safety, and higher travel speed for passengers.