Railways Spend 98% Of FY26 Capex By February; Can Boost Rail Infra Stocks

Indian Railways utilised nearly 98% of its FY26 capital expenditure budget by the end of February, indicating faster execution of infrastructure projects across the network, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Monday.

Vaishnaw said the previous financial year’s capital expenditure allocation was almost fully utilised by the first week of March. He added that spending had already crossed about 98% by the last week of February, after which expenditure was moderated to align with year-end financial processes.

The comments come as the Centre continues to increase spending on railway infrastructure, including electrification, new lines, station redevelopment and high-speed connectivity projects.

Railway Infra Stocks May Gain Focus

Market analysts said the minister’s comments could keep railway infrastructure, wagon, signalling and engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) companies in focus as investors continue to track the government’s large-scale spending on rail modernisation and faster execution of projects.

They feel companies linked to track laying, electrification, rolling stock, signalling systems and station redevelopment may continue to see investor attention amid rising order inflows from railway projects.

The observations also come at a time when the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked industries and logistics companies to shift to railways for freight movement wherever possible to reduce diesel consumption.

Electrification And Track Expansion Gather Pace

Vaishnaw said Indian Railways has electrified 49,000 km of tracks so far, which he said was larger than the entire railway network of Germany. He also said 36,000 km of new railway tracks have been added to the network.

Railway infrastructure spending has remained a key part of the government’s broader economic and logistics strategy over the last few Union Budgets.

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Faster Corridors May Shift Traffic From Airlines

The minister said upcoming rail corridors would sharply reduce travel time between major cities, making trains the preferred mode of transport on several routes currently dominated by airlines.

According to Vaishnaw, travel time between Mumbai and Pune is expected to reduce to 28 minutes, while Pune to Hyderabad could take 1 hour and 55 minutes. Hyderabad to Bengaluru travel time may fall to around two hours. He also said Bengaluru and Chennai would effectively function as one integrated economic region once the travel time between the two cities comes down to 78 minutes.

For northern routes, Vaishnaw said Delhi to Varanasi travel time is expected to reduce to 3 hours and 50 minutes, while Delhi to Lucknow could take nearly two hours. The minister said railways would dominate passenger traffic on these routes once the projects become operational, reducing the need for short-haul domestic flights on several routes.

Sources:

Business Standard

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