Railways achieves 98 percent utilisation of its budgetary allocation for FY26: Ashwini Vaishnaw

New Delhi: Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Monday said that Indian Railways has achieved 98 percent utilisation of its budgetary allocation for FY26.

The entire capital expenditure (capex) was almost fully utilised by the first week of March and this reflects the accelerated pace of infrastructure projects, he said.

“Practically by the last week of February, it was like 98 points some percentage,” he said while addressing an event here.

Highlighting the expansion of the railway network, the minister said 49,000 kilometres of tracks have been electrified — more than the entire railway network of Germany. Additionally, 36,000 kilometres of new tracks have been added, equivalent to six times the size of Switzerland’s railway network.

Vaishnaw emphasised that these developments will drastically cut travel times on several busy corridors, making trains far more attractive than air travel.

He cited upcoming high-speed and semi-high-speed corridors where flight services could become unviable. Mumbai to Pune: Travel time to be reduced to just 28 minutes, Pune to Hyderabad: 1 hour 55 minutes, Hyderabad to Bengaluru: around 2 hours, Bengaluru to Chennai: 78 minutes

Delhi to Varanasi: 3 hours 50 minutes and Delhi to Lucknow: around 2 hours.

“So nobody will fly. These sectors will be out for airlines,” Vaishnaw said. “I’m reminding right away for those who want to invest in airlines. These sectors will be 99 per cent dominated by railways," he said.

Vaishnaw also said that the government does not expect a truce in the West Asia conflict in the near future and appealed to citizens to make efforts to help preserve the country’s foreign exchange reserves.

Vaishnaw’s remarks follow Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal on Sunday, urging citizens to address challenges arising from the ongoing conflict involving the US, Israel, and Iran. Modi had called for judicious use of fuel and saving foreign exchange “by any means”.

Vaishnaw stressed the importance of collective citizen participation to help strengthen India’s economic position amid the prevailing geopolitical situation.