While the announcement of new trains is unlikely for the second consecutive year, the Railways Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu is likely to focus on capacity creation with an increased outlay of about Rs 1.25 lakh crore.
Out of the outlay, a significant amount will be set aside for safety upgradation, electrification, doubling and modernisation of yards to clear traffic bottlenecks.
As Prabhu will have to rely on the External Budgetary Resources (EBR) for execution of the capacity augmentation projects, he has written to the chief ministers of 18 states for taking up rail projects through joint ventures route.
The railways have earned Rs 136,079.26 crore as against the target of Rs 141,416.05 crore, a decline of 3.77 per cent.
Prabhu will give details about the concerted efforts being undertaken by the railways to keep stations and trains clean and environment-friendly in his second budget speech in Parliament on February 25.
All 400 stations being planned to be developed with private participation are likely to be announced as "green stations" with several environment-friendly measures like generation of solar energy, recycling of water, conversion of waste to energy and use of LED lights to be incorporated in the plan.