Budget 2019: Nirmala Sitharaman calls for public-private partnerships in Indian Railways

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented her maiden Budget at the Parliament today. Talking about the Indian Railways, the finance minister said a public-private partnership will make services better. "Railway infra would need an investment of Rs 50 lakh crore between 2018 and 2030; PPP to be used to unleash faster development and delivery of passenger freight services," she said.

She spoke further on India's transportation and said, "Schemes such as BharatMala, Sagarmala and UDAN are bridging rural urban divide and improving our transport infrastructure."

Around 657 km of metro rail network has become operational in the country, she added and said, "Comprehensive restructuring of National Highways Programme will be done, to ensure the creation of National Highways Grid of desirable capacity."

Sitharaman also spoke about road construction and said that all-weather road connectivity provided to more than 97% of eligible and feasible habitations, which has been made possible by a high pace of road construction.

The Finance Minister spoke about India's space programme and said, "India has emerged as a major space power. It is time to harness our ability commercially. To harness India's space ability commercially, a public sector enterprise, New Space India Limited (NSIL) has been incorporated to tap benefits of ISRO."

Sitharaman added that India could become a $5 trillion economy in the coming years to come and laid down a roadmap for the target - heavy investment in infrastructure, digital economy and job creation.

Also read: Budget 2019 Speech Live: Public-private partnership in Railways, pension for retail traders, electricity for all announced

Also read: Union Budget 2019: Retail traders with less than Rs 1.5 crore annual turnover to get pension