**Executive Summary**
This document presents the Ministry of Railways' response to unstarred question number 2768, scheduled to be answered on December 17, 2025. It addresses various aspects of Indian Railways' expenditures, including budget details, land monetisation, and revenue enhancement measures. The document provides data and explanations related to financial years 2022-23 through 2024-25, as well as future plans and initiatives.
**Key Points / Main Content**
* **Financial Performance:**
* Details are provided on the earnings and expenditure of Indian Railways from 2022-23 to 2024-25 including total revenue, expenditure, surplus, and capital expenditure from budgetary sources.
* ₹1,16,514 cr. has been allocated for Safety Related activities, including Track Renewal and Track maintenance during 2025-26 with utilization up to November 2025 being about 70%.
* **Land Monetisation:**
* Vacant railway land not required for immediate operations is entrusted to Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) for commercial development, with approximately 1308 hectares entrusted for monetisation.
* The revenue generated from land and spaces used for commercial purposes in the last three years is Rs 8,209 cr.
* Execution of land monetisation projects is dependent on land documents, land use, plan approvals, and legal issues.
* **Non-Fare Revenue Enhancement:**
* Several steps are being taken to increase non-fare revenue including advertisement through Rail Display Network (RDN) and Out of Home (OOH), and on mobile assets.
* Innovative solutions include sleeping pods, premium outlets, kiosks for booking taxis, E-wheel chairs, health kiosks and medical stores.
* Other sources include licence fees from parking contracts, land monetisation, and catering contracts.
* **Infrastructure Development:**
* Network capacity expansion through new lines, multi-tracking, and gauge conversion is underway. From 2009-14, 7,599 km of new tracks were commissioned, and from 2014-25, 34,428 km were commissioned.
* As of April 1, 2025, 431 projects (154 New Line, 33 Gauge Conversion, and 244 Doubling) are sanctioned.
* The Eastern and Western Dedicated Freight Corridors are being constructed with significant progress.
* Indian Railways has undertaken electrification of railway lines, with approximately 99.1% of the Broad Gauge network electrified.
* **Freight Operations and Asset Management:**
* Large numbers of wagons and locomotives have been procured and manufactured.
* Industry participation in investment in various types of wagons is encouraged.
* Under the 'Gati Shakti Multi-Modal Cargo Terminal (GCT)' policy, 118 new GCTs have been commissioned.
* A "Bulk Cement Terminal Policy" is launched for terminals on Railway land.
* Use of Information Technology in freight operations to improve monitoring and utilization of assets is prioritized.
**Impact Analysis**
**Stakeholders:**
* **Indian Railways (Ministry of Railways):**
**Impact:** The document outlines the progress and future plans for financial performance, infrastructure development, and freight operations.
**Action Required:** To continue to improve financial performance, continue progress on current infrastructure projects, enhance non-fare revenue, and improve asset management.
* **Passengers:**
**Impact:** Passengers benefit from enhanced infrastructure, better services, and increased availability of resources.
**Action Required:** N/A
* **Freight Operators:**
**Impact:** Freight operators benefit from increased capacity, dedicated corridors, and improved asset utilisation.
**Action Required:** N/A
Key Entities Referenced
Ministry of Railways: The central government ministry responsible for the Indian Railways.
Indian Railways: The state-owned national railway system of India, responsible for operation and development.
Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA): Authority tasked with monetizing vacant railway land for commercial development.
Gati Shakti Multi-Modal Cargo Terminal (GCT) policy: Policy promoting the development of multi-modal cargo terminals on railway land.
Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC): High speed freight dedicated routes: Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) and Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC)
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS
LOK SABHA
UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2768
TO BE ANSWERED ON 17.12.2025
EXPENDITURES OF RAILWAYS
2768. DR. SHRIKANT EKNATH SHINDE:
SHRI RAVINDRA DATTARAM WAIKAR:
SMT. BHARTI PARDHI:
SHRI SHRIRANG APPA CHANDU BARNE:
SHRI VISHALDADA PRAKASHBAPU PATIL:
SHRI NARESH GANPAT MHASKE:
Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state:
(a) the details of the Budget Estimate, Revised Estimate and Actual
Expenditure of Indian Railways during the last three financial
years including current financial year, zone-wise;
(b) whether funds earmarked for safety works and track renewal
have been fully utilised during the current financial year and if
so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons for underutilisation;
(c) the total railway land identified for monetisation and the revenue
generated through land monetisation during the last three
financial years, zone-wise;
(d) whether any land monetisation projects are pending due to
issues related to State Government permissions or local body
approvals and if so, the details thereof; and
(e) the details of the measures taken to enhance non-fare revenue
and reduce dependence on budgetary support for capital projects
aligning with financial sustainability goals?
ANSWER
(f)
MINISTER OF RAILWAYS, INFORMATION & BROADCASTING AND
ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
(SHRI ASHWINI VAISHNAW)
(a) & (b): Details of Earnings and Expenditure of Indian Railways since
2022-23 is as under:
--2/-- 2 -
(Rs. in crore)
2022-23 2023-24 2024-25
Total Revenue 2,40,177 2,56,094 2,65,678
Total Expenditure 2,37,660 2,52,834 2,63,018
Surplus (Net Revenue) 2,517 3,260 2,660
Total Capex (Budgetary
1,62,658 2,45,592 2,54,312
Sources)
Railway wise details of Total Earnings and Total Expenditure are
available in Annual Statistical Statement of Indian Railways which is
available on website of Indian Railways (https://indianrailways.gov.in).
During 2025-26, Rs. 1,16,514 cr. have been allocated for Safety
Related activities which includes activities for Track Renewal and Track
maintenance. Utilisation upto Nov’25 is about 70%.
(c) & (d): Vacant Railway land not required by Railway for its
immediate operational needs is entrusted to Rail Land Development
Authority (RLDA) for commercial development. Approximately, 1308
hectares of land has been entrusted to RLDA for commercial
monetization.The revenue generated by the Indian Railways from the use
of land and spaces for commercial purposes during last three years has
been Rs 8,209 cr.
Execution of land monetisation projects depends on many factors
such as availability of proper land documents, change in land use,
approval of plans and litigation etc., affecting the completion time.
(e): Several steps have been taken by Indian Railways to increase Non
fare Revenue through advertisement and other innovative Ideas like:
--3/-- 3 -
Advertisement through Rail Display Network (RDN) at stations.
Advertisement through Out of Home (OOH)
Advertisement on Mobile Assets like coaches and inside train.
Innovative solutions to enhance passengers satisfactions like
Provision for sleeping pods, Single Brand Premium Outlet, Kiosk for
providing facility for booking auto & Taxis, Providing E-Wheel chair
facility on payment basis, Health Kiosk, Medical store to sell
Generic medicines.
Licence fee from Parking contracts
Land Monetisation
Receipts from Catering contracts
To increase overall revenue, following measures have been taken by
Indian Railways:
To increase the network capacity, rail network expansion has been
taken up in a big way by construction of new lines, multi tracking of
existing lines and gauge conversion of existing lines. The details of
new tracks laid during the 11 years are as under:
Period New Tracks
Commissioned
2009-14 7,599 km
2014-25 34,428 km
Further as on 01.04.25, there are 431 (154 New Line, 33 Gauge
Conversion and 244 Doubling) projects are sanctioned. The summary of
which is as under:
--4/-- 4 -
Category No. of Total Length Balance Cost (Cr.)
Projects Length Completed length
(Km) till Mar’25 (Km)
(Km)
New lines 154 16,142 3,036 13,105 3,77,389
Gauge
33 4,180 2,997 1,183 43,820
conversion
Doubling/ Multi
244 15,644 6,736 8,909 2,53,711
tracking
Total 431 35,966 12,769 23,197 6,74,920
Removing bottlenecks in operations by yard remodelling,
construction of bypass/chord lines, rail flyovers etc.
The construction of Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) from
Ludhiana to Sonnagar (1337 Km) and Western Dedicated Freight
Corridor (WDFC) from Jawaharlal Nehru Port Terminal (JNPT) to
Dadri (1506 Km) has been taken up. Out of total 2843 kms, 2741
route kms (96.4%) has been commissioned and operational.
Indian Railways has taken up electrification of Railway lines in a
mission mode. So far, about 99.1% of Broad Gauge (BG) network
has been electrified. A comparison of electrification before and
after 2014 is as follows:
Period Route Kilometre
Before 2014 21,801
2014-25 46,900
--5/-- 5 -
Procurement of Wagons and Locomotives: To increase freight
carrying capacity, large numbers of IR wagons have been procured
and locomotives have been manufactured. During 2014 to 2025,
about 2 lakh wagons have been procured and more than 10,000
locomotives have been added for increasing freight loading and
mobility.
Industry participation in investment in General Purpose Wagons,
Special Purpose/High-Capacity wagons and Automobile carrier
wagons for cement, oil, steel, fly-ash, automobile etc. So far,
around 240 rakes of special purpose wagons, 374 rakes of general-
purpose wagons and 48 rakes of automobile wagons have been
inducted.
Under the ‘Gati Shakti Multi-Modal Cargo Terminal (GCT)’ policy so
far, 118 new GCTs have been commissioned, with an estimated
traffic capacity of 192 million tonnes per annum (MTPA). In
addition, for improvement of freight and parcel terminals from the
financial year 2023-24 onwards, an amount of ₹14,500 crore has
been allocated.
A “Bulk Cement Terminal Policy” for setting up terminals on
Railway land has been launched recently as part of Railway
reforms for facilitating Bulk Cement transportation.
Ensuring increased availability of rakes/wagons against demand.
Use of Information Technology in freight operations to improve
monitoring and utilization of assets.
Induction of higher horsepower locomotives.
Improvement in maintenance practices of wagons and locomotives
resulting in increased availability of loco and rolling stock for
traffic use.
--6/-- 6 -
Improvement in track and signalling standards to carry higher
volume of traffic.
Training of staff and officers to adopt the new technology and
management practices.
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