The Indian Railways has achieved a robust 36% year-on-year growth in capital expenditure to Rs. 32,000 cr. during April-July 2017, entrenching its status of the last couple of years as a key driver of public capex. The transporter’s Q1FY18 capex jump comes on top of a 19% annual growth in its capital investments in 2016-17 and 59% in 2015-16. The railways has planned a capital expenditure of Rs.1,31,000 cr. for the financial year 2017-18, of which Rs.69,000 cr. needs to be raised through budgetary resources and Rs.62,000 cr. through extra budgetary means. The Centre’s overall budgetary capex for April-June increased 39% y-o-y to Rs.68,328 cr., of which nearly 50% was defence-related. Roads, agriculture, urban development, and housing, apart from railways, were the beneficiaries due to front-loading of expenditure.

(Financial Express)