The Union Government reviewed the progress made in budgeted capital expenditure (capex) plan of the Ministry of Railways (MoR) on September 17, 2024. The MoR has been asked to expedite the deployment of KAVACH in a phased manner along with transforming 40,000 normal rail bogies to Vande Bharat standards.
Also, areas like capacity augmentation, safety and commuter convenience, including doubling and electrification of existing railway tracks along with laying of new railway lines need to be focused on. Further, as of September 16, 2024, the Kota division of West Central Railway has operationalised KAVACH 4.0 on the 108 km long Kota–Sawai Madhopur section at a record rate of 54 km per month.
Besides, MoR has identified a total of 434 railway projects, covering 40,900 km, with an investment plan of Rs 11.16 trillion. This includes 192 projects for energy, mineral and cement corridor, 200 projects for high-density network corridors and 42 projects for Rail Sagar projects. Also, under this, 55 projects having a total length of 5,723 km have been sanctioned till now with an overall investment plan of Rs 1.03 trillion.