Railways: Execution is key
February 02, 2021
Capital expenditure has been picking up slowly
Budget 2021 has pegged Railways’ capex for FY22 at a record ₹2.15 lakh crore, up by 34 per cent compared to the capex announced for FY21. This is, however, much lower than the projections of ₹3.08-lakh crore, as per the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) report, for the said fiscal. The budgeted capex for FY21 – ₹1.61 lakh crore – too was lower than as fixed by NIP at ₹2.62 lakh crore.
The companies in the sector were severely impacted in the first half of FY21 as the capital expenditure by the Railways languished during the period due to the outbreak of Covid-19. The Railways’ capex has been slowly picking up in the latter part of current fiscal and with higher budgetary allocation for FY22, all eyes will be on the execution aspect.