Decreasing Fuel Costs Stands to be a Benefit for Indian Railway Services

 India’s decrepit state-run train services stand to receive at least a 25 percent boost in investment to over $9 billion, funded solely by falling fuel costs, according to officials familiar with a railway budget set to be unveiled on Thursday. The world’s fourth largest rail network could get even more if Prime Minister Narendra Modi makes it a priority, as China did during its rapid economic growth over the past two decades. There are high hopes that his nine-month-old government will plough money into investment in infrastructure needed to haul the economy out of a rut when it presents its first annual federal budget on Saturday. The separate rail budget, a relic of the country’s British colonial past, could show how far Modi’s India is prepared to drive investment in a vital transport sector. “The fall in diesel prices and a pick-up in freight earnings have given us a golden chance to raise investments,” said one government official.

Denisha Sahadevan