NEW DELHI -- Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government plans to spend 1.21 trillion rupees ($17.6 billion) in India's aging rail network in the financial year beginning April, up 20% on the year.
Indian Railways, the world's fourth-largest network with 23 million daily users, most of them poor, has suffered for decades due to under-investment. The Modi government, which came to power in May 2014, said last year it aims to invest 8.5 trillion rupees over the next five years to upgrade rail infrastructure.
