Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said the budget would set the "direction of [a] long and difficult road of reform".
India's state-run railway runs more than 12,000 trains, carrying some 23 million passengers daily.
But decades of neglect, low investment and subsidised fares have left the network in a shambles.
Reports say the network is expected to receive at least a 25% rise in investment taking it to over $9bn (£5.79bn), helped mainly by falling fuel costs.
"The fall in diesel prices and a pick-up in freight earnings have given us a golden chance to raise investments," a government official was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.
India's railway is also one of the world's largest employers, with 1.3 million workers. This makes any radical reform politically sensitive.
Successive governments have backed away from modernising the network and instead used the system to provide cheap transport and jobs. The lack of investment has meant slower services and more accidents.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that revamping the railways is a priority for his government and that he wants the "railway stations to have better facilities than airports".
Source,http://www.bbc.com/
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