Railways spent Rs 3,256 cr of RRSK till June this year: Gohain

The government on Thursday said that the Indian Railways spent Rs 3,256 crore this year against the Rs 20,000 crore from the Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh (RRSK) and Rs 16,091 crore last year.

"In 2017-18, out of the outlay of Rs 20,000 crore, expenditure of Rs 16,091 crore has been incurred out of RRSK. And in the current year Rs 3,256 crore has been spent till end of June," Minister of State for Railways Rajen Gohain said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

The Minister said the RRSK has been introduced, as announced by Minister of Finance in his Budget Speech 2017-18, for works related to renewal, replacement and upgradation of critical safety assets.

According to the Railway Ministry, the fund has a corpus of Rs one lakh crore over a period of five years, having an assured annual outlay of Rs 20,000 crore with Rs 15,000 crore as contribution from Gross Budgetary Support and Rs 5,000 crore from internal resources of the Railways.

Gohain said that the fund under RRSK is being utilized to finance safety-related works under plan-heads track renewals, bridge works, signalling and telecommunication works, road safety works of level crossings and road over or under bridges, rolling stock, traffic facilities, electrical works, machinery and plant, workshops, passenger amenities and training or HRD.