Kolkata: Was the Railways sector a tad disappointed after the budget speech of FM Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday? It doesn’t seem unlikely after the allocation for modernising the railways was pegged at Rs 2.55 lakh crore for FY26, down from the figure of Rs 2.62 lakh crore announced in the last budget, which was a record figure.
The gross budgetary support for the current financial year FY25 was set at Rs 2,52,200 crore and it marked quite a raise from Rs 2,40,200 crore in the previous financial year (FY24). Incidentally, it was a sharp rise of Rs 28,174 crore proposed in 2013-14.
Railway stocks lost steam after the budget
As a result of these figures, there was a slight disappointment among investors in railway stocks. Some of the stocks related to the railways — both in the public sector as well as the private sector — such as RVNL (Rail Vikas Nigam), Ircon International, Indian Railway Finance Corp, Texmaco Rail & Engineering, Jupiter Wagons, Titagarh Rail Systems — all let off steam after the budget speech. Railway related shares zoomed in the morning in anticipation of a continuation of the bonanza that came the way of the sector last year but came off the day’s upper levels when it became clear that such expectations will not be fructified in FY26 budget.
Allocation in last budget also promoted industrial development
The funds allocated in the July 23, 2024 budget had outlay for promoting industrial development, infrastructure to support industrial clusters at different locations. Among the major nodes were Gaya on the Amritsar-Kolkata Industrial Corridor in Bihar, Kopparthy on the Visakhapatnam-Chennai Industrial Corridor and Orvakal on the Hyderabad-Bengaluru Industrial Corridor.
Over the last decade, Indian Railways has set quite a few achievements. These include commissioning of 31,180 track kilometers, emphasis in laying new tracks to the extent of 14.54 kilometers per day in FY24 from just 4 kilometers a day FY15. Also 41,655 Route Kilometers route km was brought under electrification between 2014 and 2024. An all-time high freight loading of 1,588 million tonnes was recorded in FY24, compared to 1,095 MT in FY25.
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Railway Budget 2025 Announcements by FM Nirmala Sitharaman: The finance minister allocated Rs Rs 2.55 lakh crore for FY26, which was down from last year’s record allocation. Business Business News – Personal Finance News, Share Market News, BSE/NSE News, Stock Exchange News Today
