India to get 200 new Vande Bharat trains in 2 to 3 years; Railway ministry outlines Budget 2025 spending

With a whopping Rs 2.52 lakh crore earmarking as the gross budgetary support to the ministry of railways, Ashwini Vaishnaw lauded finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman for an "amazing" budget. Following Vaishnaw's reaction, the railway ministry also announced that India could expect 200 new Vande Bharat trains, 100 Amrit Bharat trains, 50 Namo Bharat rapid rail and 17,500 general non-AC coaches in the next two to three years.

The gross budgetary support for the upcoming fiscal mirrors that of last year, where the same allocation of Rs 2.52 lakh crore was provided. Rs 10,000 crore from extra-budgetary resources was also allocated to the Railways to meet its expenses and modernise it. This meant the total capex was Rs 2.62 crore.

This time around, "expenditure on assets, acquisition, construction and replacement will be met out of funds from not only Gross Budgetary Support (including Railway Safety Fund and Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh), but the general revenues of Indian Railways," according to the statement from the railway ministry.

The ministry also noted the provision of Rs 200 crore from the Nirbhaya Fund and said that an additional Rs 3,000 crore would be mobilised from its internal resources.

Over the past few months, railway minister Vaishnaw has been actively providing updates about the rollout of the new Vande Bharat sleeper trains and the introduction of the Amrit Bharat express trains. 

Indian Railways said that a total of 136 Vande Bharat train services were active in the country by the end of last year. Out of them, 62 new Vande Bharat services were introduced in 2024 alone.

Following the Budget session on Saturday, Vaishnaw spoke to the media and said that the Indian Railways was on its way to becoming the second-highest freight-carrying railway network as it looks to touch 160 crore tonnes of cargo by the end of the current fiscal year.

Looking ahead, the Indan Railways would achieve 100 per cent electrification by the end of FY2025-2026, added the minister.