The Railways Plan outlay for 2005-06 has been kept at Rs 11,827 crore (Rs 118.27 billion) and taking into account the outlay of Rs 3,522 crore (Rs 35.22 billion) on safety related works through the Special Railway Safety Fund, the total outlay comes to Rs 15,349 crore (Rs 153.49  billion).

This is Rs 851 crore (Rs 8.51 billion) more than the outlay last year.

The Railway Budget 2005-06: Complete Coverage

Presenting the Railway Budget 2005-06, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad said to improve productivity and efficiency of the Railways, the prime minister has directed the Planning

Commission to allow his ministry to access extra budgetary resources to the extent of Rs 3,000 crore (Rs 30 billion) by identifying and posing financially viable throughput enhancement schemes on a projectised basis.

For 2005-06, the total funds received from the General Exchequer are Rs 7,230.81 crore (Rs 72.31 billion), which includes Rs 2,699 crore (Rs 26.99 billion) for SRSF, Rs 710.81 crore (Rs 7.11 billion) from the Central Road Fund leaving a net budgetary support of Rs 3821 crore (Rs 38.21 billion) for distribution to different plan heads.

The corresponding figure of last year's budget estimates was Rs 7,020 crore (Rs 70.2 billion) including Rs 2,075 crore (Rs 20.75 billion) for the SRSF and Rs 401 crore (Rs 4.01 billion) from the Central Road Fund, he said.