Indian Railways

Indian Railways play the most economical mode of transport among the prevailing travel modes in India. It has emerged today as the main vehicle for socio-economic development of the country. Indian railway is one of the largest employment providers in India.

Recent Developments

To make rail transportation attractive and arrest the declining trend of rail share, various initiatives were taken in Financial Year2017-18 which includes-

  • Tariff rationalization
  • Classification of new commodities
  • New policy guideline for station to station rates
  • Expansion of freight basket through containerization
  • Withdrawal of dual freight policy for export of iron ore
  • Rationalization of coal tariff
  • Policy guidelines of Merry Go Round System
  • Discount for loading of bagged consignment in open and flat wagons
  • New delivery models like Roll-on Roll-off services
  • Re-introduction of short lead concession and reduction in minimum distance for charge
  • Digital payment for freight business
  • Long Term Tariff Contract Policy (which provides tariff stability and attractive rebate in freight to customers)

National Rail & Transport Institute

  • The National Rail and Transportation Institute (NRTI), Vadodara, Gujarat, is India’s first university focused on transport-related education, multidisciplinary research and training.
  • NRTI is focused on developing global and national partnerships with top universities and organizations from across the world. This will enable access to the latest pedagogy and program design, and prevailing transportation related domain knowledge, innovations and research developments.
  • NRTI has adopted an interdisciplinary approach for research of transport systems—it is bringing together academicians, scientists and engineers from various backgrounds, and plans to leverage its academic and industry partnerships and collaborations.
  • Disha App which serves as a single window for information regarding passenger amenities available at the station, such as Wi-fi availability, emergency medical rooms (EMRs), station master's office, GRP & RPF post, catering facilities, ETA, etc.

Railways in India

The Government of India has focused on investing on railway infrastructure by making investor-friendly policies. It has moved quickly to enable Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in railways to improve infrastructure for freight and high-speed trains. At present, several domestic and foreign companies are also looking to invest in Indian rail projects.

Other Initiatives

High Speed Railway

  • A road map developed to increase speed of trains by overcoming the existing impediments on Principal routes of the railways on Golden Quadrilateral(GQ) along with diagonals (Delhi – Mumbai, Delhi – Howrah, Howrah- Chennai, Chennai – Mumbai, Delhi – Chennai and Howrah – Mumbai) due to fixed infrastructure, movable infrastructure, and operational practices.
  • Projects for two routes viz. New Delhi- Mumbai Central (including Vadodara- Ahmedabad) and New Delhi- Howrah (including Kanpur- Lucknow) for raising of speed to 160/200 kmph have been included in WP 2017-18 at Rs 18,000 crores approximately.
  • Speed Enhancement project entails works such as through fencing, removal of level crossings, train protection warning system (TPWS), mobile train radio communication (MTRC), automated and mechanized diagnostic systems, etc. which will considerably enhance safety and reliability.
  • The main outcome of the implementation of the projects is increase in the maximum speed of the trains to 160/200 kmph. This will reduce the travel time of premium Rajdhani type trains to 12 hours as against the present travel time of 17 hours for Howrah Rajdhani and 15 hours 35 minutes for Mumbai Rajdhani.

India’s First Bullet Train

  • The government proposes to start the services on August 15, 2022 to mark India’s 75th year of Independence.
  • India’s first bullet train between Ahmedabad and Mumbai will run at a maximum speed of 350 km per hour, covering the 508-km stretch in under three hours.
  • The ambitious project, which was launched in September 2017 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe, would cost around Rs 1.10 lakh crore.
  • The railways would run around 35 bullet trains when it starts operation with about 70 trips per day. The number of trains would be increased to 105 trains in 2050.

Semi High-Speed Studies

  • Delhi-Chandigarh (244 km): Final report of feasibility cum implementation study of New Delhi-Chandigarh Corridor for raising the speed of passenger trains to 200 kmph by SNCF/France has been received.
  • Nagpur – Secunderabad (575 km): A Protocol under co-operation MoU has been signed between Ministry of Railways and Russian Railways for carrying out feasibility cum implementation study. Work started in June 2016 and progressing as per schedule.
  • Chennai- Kazipet by German Railways: Joint declaration of intent has been signed between both the parties on 10/10/17 for raising the speed of passenger trains to 200kmph on the existing route on 50:50 cost sharing basis. The feasibility study shall be carried out after signing a separate agreement, which is under finalization.

Train 18/Vande Bharat Express

  • Train 18/Vande Bharat Express, is the India’s first engine less-train, it also became the fastest train in the country when crossed the 180 kilometers per hour (kmph) mark during a trial run in the Kota-Sawai Madhopur section.
  • It outran Gatimaan Express which held the record of being the fastest train in the country running at 160 kmph.The fully air-conditioned semi-high speed train, will cut travel time by 15 per cent as compared to the Shatabdi.
  • This train has been manufactured under ‘Make in India’ initiative by the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai at the cost of Rs 100 crore and completed in a record 18 months as opposed to around three years that private industry players generally take to build a product like this from scratch.

Metro Rail Policy, 2017

  • In order to create an ecosystem for proliferation of metro rail in country, the Government of India has notified Metro Rail Policy, 2017. The policy imbibes on the learnings from international examples and bridges the much-needed gap for enhancing the feasibility of metro rail projects from economic, social and environmental perspective.
  • The policy opens a big window for private investments across a range of metro operations making PPP component mandatory for availing central assistance for new metro projects. Private investment and other innovative forms of financing of metro projects have been made compulsory to meet the huge resource demand for capital intensive high capacity metro projects.

Present Status of Metro Rail Projects

  • Metro projects with a total length of 595 kms in 13 cities including 10 new cities are at various stages of planning and appraisal. These are: Delhi Metro Phase IV- 103.93 km, Delhi & NCR-21.10 km, Vijayawada-26.03 km, Visakhapatnam-42.55 km, Bhopal-27.87 km, Indore-31.55 km, Kochi Metro Phase II-11.20 km, Greater Chandigarh Region Metro Project-37.56 km, Patna-27.88 km, Guwahati-61 km, Varanasi-29.24 km, Thiruvananthapuram & Kozhikode (Light Rail Transport)-35.12 km and Chennai Phase II-107.50 km.

GreenCo Rating

  • GreenCo Rating is being implemented in 42 facilities (production units and workshops) of Indian Railways. 26 facilities of Indian Railways have achieved rating levels ranging across Certified, Bronze, Silver and Gold levels, while the others are in the process of implementation.
  • GreenCo has helped Indian Railways bring in a focused approach towards green practices by strengthening its energy conservation initiatives, facilitating renewable energy opportunities, water management and waste management.
  • Two Railway stations, two Railway schools and administrative buildings of IRICEN, ICF and SCR headquarters have also been certified green as part of this effort.

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