Union Budget 2021-22 focuses on bringing down logistics costs

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharamn presented the Union Budget 2021-22 in parliament today. The government plans to soon put the next lot of airports for privatisation that will help monetise these assets for operations and management. While presenting the budget, Finance Minister says, “AAI airports in tier-2 & 3 cities to be monetised.” The Minister says, “Bringing down the logistic costs for our industry is at the core of our strategy to enable ‘Make in India’. It is expected that Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) and Eastern DFC will be commissioned by June 2022. The additional proposed initiatives are that the Sonnagar – Gomoh Section (263.7 km) of Eastern DFC will be taken up in PPP mode in 2021-22. Gomoh-Dankuni section of 274.3 km will also be taken up in short succession. We will undertake future dedicated freight corridor projects namely East Coast corridor from Kharagpur to Vijayawada, East-West Corridor from Bhusaval to Kharagpur to Dankuni and North-South corridor from Itarsi to Vijayawada. Detailed Project Reports will be undertaken in the first phase. c. Broad Gauge Route Kilometers (RKM) electrified is expected to reach 46,000 RKM i.e., 72 per cent by end of 2021 from 41,548 RKM on October 1, 2020. 100 per cent electrification of Broad-Gauge routes will be completed by December, 2023.