Indian Railways has prioritised investments in areas like dedicated freight corridors, high-speed rail, modern passenger services like Vande Bharat, Amrit Bharat Express, Aastha Special Trains, high-capacity rolling stock and last-mile rail linkages, said the Economic Survey 2023-24.
The key focus areas for Railways include fast capacity augmentation, modernisation of rolling stock and maintenance, improving quality of services and energy efficiency. In line with this, investments are prioritized for three major corridors – High-traffic density corridors, Energy, Mineral and Cement Corridors and Rail Sagar (port connectivity) corridors are also planned to reduce logistics cost and carbon footprint.
Indian Railways hosts many services to enhance user experience, efficiently manage the train system and build capacity for a Viksit Bharat. Passenger traffic originating in railways was 673 crore in FY24 (provisional actuals), increasing by about 5.2 per cent compared to the previous year.
Indian Railways carried 158.8 crore tonnes of revenue-earning freight in FY24 (excluding Konkan Railway Corporation Limited), showing an increase of 5.3 per cent over the previous year. The freight loadings of the railways achieved a CAGR of 7.1 per cent from FY20 to FY24, with the special emphasis on capacity addition, new rolling stock and improving operational efficiencies.
Indian Railways, with over 68,584 route km (as of 31st March 2024) and 12.54 lakh employees (as of 1st April 2024), is the fourth largest network in the world under single management. Capital expenditure on Railways has increased by 77 per cent over the past 5 years (Rs 2.62 lakh crore in FY24) with significant investments in the construction of new
lines, gauge conversion, and doubling.
Railways has also planned to reduce its carbon footprint primarily through sourcing its energy requirements through renewable energy sources. The expected requirement of installation of renewable capacity by 2029-30 is around 30 Giga Watts.
Carbon emission by 2029-30 as per business-as-usual mode is estimated to be 60 million tonnes8. Further, about 5,750 MW of renewable capacity has also been tied up.
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