Cabinet clears Rs 69,725 crore shipbuilding package, approves bonus for railway staff

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a Rs 69,725 crore package to revitalise India’s shipbuilding and maritime sector. The plan extends the Shipbuilding Financial Assistance Scheme till March 2036 with a corpus of Rs 24,736 crore and sets up a National Shipbuilding Mission. Incentives include a Shipbreaking Credit Note worth over Rs 4,000 crore. Ahead of the festive season, the government cleared a productivity-linked bonus of 78 days, amounting to Rs 1,865 crore, for 10.91 lakh railway employees. The Cabinet also approved the DSIR/CSIR capacity-building scheme with an outlay of Rs 2,277.39 crore to support R&D institutions and nurture STEMM talent. Medical education capacity will be expanded with 5,000 new postgraduate seats and 5,023 additional MBBS seats under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme. In Bihar, the government sanctioned two major infrastructure projects — doubling of the Bakhtiyarpur-Rajgir-Tilaiya rail line at a cost of Rs 2,192 crore, and construction of a Rs 3,822 crore four-lane highway connecting Sahebganj-Areraj-Bettiah.