The administration has decided to make an investment of Rs 41,426 crore with the intention to update the rail network and perk up consumer services.

Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee made this declaration while presenting her ministry's budget in parliament today.

Out of this, around Rs 4,411 crore will be used up to lay 1,000 km of new lines and Rs 1,302 crore for bettering passenger services.

The expenditure would be funded via a gross budgetary support of Rs 15,875 crore, diesel cess of Rs 877 crore, internal reserves of Rs 14,523 crore and additional-budgetary resources of Rs 10,151 crore.

An added Rs 9,120 crore will be taken up from the market via Indian Railway Finance Corporation Ltd.

The budget came against the backdrop of the contribution of Indian Railways in the movement of goods, vis-a-vis truckers, descending from 24.07% in 2001-02 to 20.89% in 2008-09 and further to 19.32% during the first 10 months of 2010-11.

Indian Railways operates the world's second biggest network under a single organization: 64,099 route km to transmit 18.9 million travelers on 7,000 trains on a daily basis from 6,906 stations. It also runs 4,000 freight trains to transmit 850 million tonnes of cargo. (With Input from Agencies)