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Railways To Spend Rs 20,000 Crore Towards Rolling Stock In 2019-20

A railway board member said railways had done strategic planning for the financial outlay and there would be no problem for funds.



An Indian Railways employee stands on a freight train. (Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg)
An Indian Railways employee stands on a freight train. (Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg)

The railways would spend an amount of Rs 20,000 crore towards augmenting rolling stock during 2019-20, an official said Sunday.

Railway Board member (rolling stock) Rajesh Agrawal said the railways had done strategic planning for the financial outlay and there would be no problem for funds.

“The annual rolling stock production volume is around 6,000 to 8,000 coaches per year,” Agrawal told reporters. “However, we need to prioritise the requirements of the various railway zones and try to meet their demands.”

He said the demands of Eastern Railway, South Eastern Railway and Kolkata Metro would be prioritised and new technologies would be introduced.

Regarding Kolkata Metro, he said there was an urgent need to replace the 100-odd condemned coaches with new ones immediately.

"Some new coaches have come and waiting for CRS (Commission of Railway Safety) permission,” he said. “Hopefully, trials will start very shortly."