New Delhi: The 2004-05 Annual Plan outlay for the Railways has been pegged at Rs 14,498 crore, which is Rs 773 crore more than the outlay of the Interim Budget apart from Rs 300 crore for the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramullah national project.

The annual plan outlay includes Rs 2,933 crore on safety related works through the Special Railway Safety Fund (SRSF).

Presenting the Railway Budget, Railway Minister Laloo Prasad said that the thrust of the annual plan is development and safety and the total outlay under capital on the five major plan project heads this year has been kept at Rs 2,696 crore with Rs 947 crore on new lines (excluding Rs 300 for Kashmir rail project).

Besides the new lines, Rs 760 crore is being provided for gauge conversion and Rs 125 crore for electrification.

The outlay on metropolitan transport projects has been pegged at Rs 385 crore.

Apart from this, Rs 717 crore is being allotted to several works under plan heads of new lines, doubling, gauge conversion and railway electrification which are executed by the Rail Vikas Nigam.

The outlay on related plan heads, inclusive of outlay given under the Special Railway Safety Fund, is Rs 2,570 crore for track renewals, Rs 528 crore for bridges and Rs 813 crore for signaling and telecommunication, Laloo said.

In addition to the budgetary support of Rs 7020 crore, the Minister also proposed to provide Rs 2,870 crore for plan expenditure through internal resource generation, which is higher than what was budgeted for last year.

As in the previous years, extra-budgetary resources, mainly through market borrowings from Indian Railways Finance Corporation, will provide the balance requirement of the plan.

This includes Rs 3,400 crore as market borrowing and Rs 50 crore as investment through Built, Operate and Transfer project in the Viramgam-Mehsana gauge conversion work.

For the Special Railway Safety Fund (SRSF), the contribution of the Central Government would be supplemented by Railway's own contribution which is expected to be Rs 858 crore, taking the total outlay under SRSF to Rs 2933 crore, he said.