Debt servicing stable in the last 5 years on higher gross budgetary support: IR

Indian Railways (IR) has been receiving adequate Gross Budgetary Support in the recent years by the Government of India and its subsequent utilization for infrastructure projects and rolling stock has led to stability in debt servicing said IR in a statement on Friday.

Earlier, infrastructure projects and rolling stock were financed by extra budgetary resources, IR added. The details of principal repayment and interest payment of lease charges paid to IRFC and MoF by IR during the last 5 years is as under:

Indian Railway Finance Corporation (IRFC), IR’s dedicated market borrowing arm is in the business is financing of Rolling Stock Assets, Railway Infrastructure Projects and leasing them to Indian Railways. Moreover, IRFC has the mandate of lending to other entities which have a forward and backward linkage to IR such as power generation and transmission, mining, fuel, coal, warehousing, telecom, hotels and catering.

Projects sanctioned as on April 2026 / FY2026-27 Budget utilisation

A total of 514 railway infrastructure projects across IR including 169 new lines, 29 gauge conversion and 316 doubling of total length 40,000 Km, costing about Rs.8.31 lakh crore are sanctioned as on April 1, 2026, informed Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw in reply to a question in Rajya Sabha on Friday, August 7, 2026. Of this, over Rs 3.05 lakh crore of capex had been spent as on March 31, 2026 for commissioning a total of 12583 km, he added.

Of the total budget grant of Rs.2,93,030 crore  in FY 2026-27, IR has already incurred expenditure of  Rs. 1,14,973 crore till July 2026 amounting to  utilization of about 39 per cent said Vaishnaw,replying to questions in the Lok Sabha on August 5,2026.

As a result, freight loading had increased from 1098 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) in FY2014-15 to 1670 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) in FY26, he summed up.