Will use ₹1.08 lakh crore Railway budget 2024 allocation to boost safety, says Ashwini Vaishnaw

Amid spate of accidents in the recent days, the Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Tuesday said the Railways Ministry would use the ₹1.08 lakh crore budget 2024 allocation to “boost safety”. He also said the Kavach '4.0' safety system was approved last week.

Addressing a post-budget conference, Vaishnaw said, “ ₹1.08 lakh crore of budget allocation to Indian Railways will be used to boost railway safety in 2024-25.”

Sharing the news of the Kavach '4.0' safety system's approval, the railways minister said 4,275 kms of optical fibres have been laid down under Kavach systems in India.

“Kavach will get a major part of the funds earmarked for safety-related measures,” he added.

The minister also said that the demand for 'general' travel is on the rise in the Indian Railways.

“10,000 extra general coaches over and above the 2,500 general coaches announced earlier will be manufactured in India,” he added.

The Operating Ratio target of India Railways for 2024-25, Vaishnaw said has been set as 98.22% from 98.65% in 2023-24.

‘Abolition of angel tax significant milestone’

Vaishnaw termed the announcement of the abolition of the angel tax, as a significant milestone that will boost the startup ecosystem in India.

It is a "very good decision" and has been the biggest demand of deep tech startups, Vaishnaw said, adding that the move will spur investment in startups.

"Angel tax has been a long-standing issue...deep tech startups had a major issue on how do you do valuation... that point has been addressed with its abolition," he said at a post-budget conference.

‘Rationalisation of customs duty’

Vaishnaw also said that the IT Ministry is working on developing mobile component ecosystem. “The budget has announced rationalisation of customs duty which will hugely benefit the industry.”

“Server and laptop manufacturing has started in India. The success we have witnessed in mobile manufacturing, we will witness the same in this sector,” he added.

The minister also said that 5 lakh jobs have been awarded in the 10 years of NDA governance, 20% higher than the 4.11 lakh jobs awarded under the 10 years of UPA government.