Budget 2016: Total outlay for roads and railways to be Rs.2,18,000 cr

Presenting the Union Budget on February 29, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced that the total outlay for road and rail development would add up to Rs.2,18,000 crore this fiscal. He said that Rs.55,000 crore is the budgetary allocation for development of roads in 2016-17 and Rs.15,000 crore is to be raised through government bonds. This added up to Rs.70,000 crore. However, taken together with the Gram Sadak Yojana, the monies goes up to Rs.97,000 crore. After adding the same to the outlay by the Railways for development of rolling stock and track, the total outlay stands at `2,18,000 crore. Jaitley said that 10,000 km of national highways is to be flagged off in 2016-17 and 15,000 km of state highways will be taken up by the Centre from the states for development.