The railways have deployed their investible surplus of nearly Rs. 70,000 crore (Rs 700 billion) earned between 2004-05 to 2008-09 to increase its productivity.
Announcing this while presenting the Interim Railway Budget 2009-10 in the Lok Sabha on Friday, the Union minister of railways Lalu Prasad said that railways will invest Rs 2,30,000 crore (Rs 2,300 billion) under the 11th Five Year Plan which is almost three times the amount allocated in the 10th Five Year Plan.
The minister said that the objective of larger investment is to increase the transport capacity of the Railways and to reduce the unit cost of operations.
Railways' investment outlays have been stepped up from Rs 13,394 crore (Rs 133.94 billion) in 2003-04 to Rs 36,773 crore (Rs 367.73 billion) in 2008-09.
Prasad also announced that railways would be completing the work of 4,900 km of gauge conversion, 1,800 km of doubling and laying 1,100 km of new lines, over five years.
Source: PIB