Snapshot
Touching Bullet Speeds
India has the 4th largest railway system in the world, behind only US, Russia and China.
The Indian Railways consists of a total track length of 126,366 km with 7,335 stations. 5243 km of track length was achieved during 2022-23 as compared to 2909 Kms during 2021-22. Average daily track laying becomes 14.4 kms per day (highest-ever commissioning). The railways operate 13,523 passenger trains and 9,146 freight trains daily. The Indian Railways has loaded 1512 MT during 2022-23 as compared to 1418 MT during FY 2021-22. This is the highest ever loading for IR in a Financial Year.
- Vision 2024 has been envisaged to achieve targets of 2024 MT freight loading by 2024.
- Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail project sanctioned at a total cost of $14.27 Bn.
- The railway sector of India aims to electrify the entire network by 2023 which will lead to annual energy savings of $1.55 Bn.
- As of Aug 2023, 59,524 km length of Broad-Gauge network has been electrified. With this, Indian Railways is rapidly progressing towards its target of 100% electrification and becoming the largest green railway network in the world.
- Indian Railways (IR) is rapidly progressing to accomplish Mission 100% Electrification and become the largest green railway network in the world. 6,542 RKMs has been achieved in IR history during 2022-23
- Indian Railways has commissioned Wi-Fi at 6,089 Railway stations across the country.
- To achieve its green mission, Indian Railways has solarized more than 1000 stations.
- Till June'23, Automatic Block Signaling (ABS) has been provided at 3946 Route Km.
- Kavach has so far been deployed on 1465 Route km (Rkm) and 121 locomotives (including Electric Multiple Unit rakes) on South Central Railway in Telangana (684 Rkm), Andhra Pradesh (66 Rkm), Karnataka (117 Rkm) & Maharashtra (598 Rkm) States.
- 400 new generation Vande Bharat Trains to be manufactured during the next three years.
- 100 PM Gati Shakti Cargo terminals for multimodal logistics to be developed during the next three years.
- During 2014-22, 1544 km (377 km new line, 972 km Gauge conversion and 195 km Doubling) sections, falling fully/partly in Northeastern Region, have been commissioned at an average rate of 193 km per year, which is 190% more than average annual commissioning achieved during 2009-14 (66.6 km per year).
100% FDI allowed in railway infrastructure under the automatic route.
For further details, please refer FDI Policy
- Bn
Annual Estimated Passengers in 2031
- MT
Annual Estimated Freight Demand in 2031
- MT
Freight Loading by 2024
- $ Bn
Revenue from freight traffic
India aims to become Largest green railway network in the world
4th largest rail freight carrier in the world
Single largest employer in India and 8th largest in the world
- Industry Scenario
- FOREIGN INVESTMENT
- INDUSTRY TRENDS
- POLICIES & SCHEMES
Industry Scenario
Indian Railways records October monthly freight loading of 129.03 MT in October’23, an an improvement of 8.47% over last year freight loading for the same period.
Following the Mantra, “Hungry For Cargo”, Indian Railways has made sustained efforts to improve the ease of doing business as well as improve the service delivery at competitive prices which has resulted in new traffic coming to railways from both conventional and non-conventional commodity streams. The customer centric approach and work of business development units backed up by agile policy making has helped the Railways breach the 1400 MT Freight Loading mark for 1st time ever in Financial Year-2021-22. Indian Railways has registered highest ever Freight Loading in any Financial year with 1512 MT freight loading in FY 2022-23.
- The railway sector in India aims to contribute about 1.5% to the country’s GDP by building infrastructure to support 45% of the modal freight share of the economy.
- Two Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFC), one on the Western route (Jawaharlal Nehru Port to Dadri) and another on the Eastern route (Ludhiana to Dankuni), have been fast-tracked.
- On cumulative basis from April –Oct 2023, Railways have earned INR 95929.30 Cr against INR 92345.27 Cr over the last year from Freight loading.
- New Line/ Doubling/ Gauge Conversion: 5243 kms of conversion have been achieved during 2022-23 as against 2909 kms in 2021-22. The average daily track laying in FY23 comes out to be 14.4 kms per day, which is also the highest ever commissioning.
- 785 electric locomotives produced in this FY 2022-23 up to 31st January 2023.
- As of Sept 2023, 34 Vande Bharat Express and 4 Tejas Express services are being operated by Indian Railways.
- Currently, a total of 2359 trips of Kisan Rail trains have been operated on 167 routes, wherein nearly 7.9 lakh Tonnes of consignments have been transported.
- 6427 (98.8% of total stations) Stations have been equipped with Electrical/Electronic Signalling Interlocking System up to 31.05.2023.
- During 2022-23, 30 Freight Terminals were created as compared to 21 Freight Terminals in 2021-22.
- Under the Union Budget 2023, Indian Railways has been allocated a highest ever capital outlay of $29 Bn.
- The average Freight Train speed has increased to 44.36 kmph during 2021-22 compared to 42.97 kmph during 2020-21 (+3.23 %) (up to 31.12. 2021). National Rail Plan aims to increase share of freight traffic from current 27% to 45% by 2030.
GROWTH DRIVERS
Exponential Rise in passenger & freight traffic
Railway passenger traffic is projected to reach around 12 Bn per year by 2031 and Freight traffic is expected to cross 8,220 Mn Tonnes by 2031
Freight shift towards railways
National Rail Plan aims to increase the modal share of Railways in freight to 45% by 2030 from existing 27%
Dedicated freight corridor
Six high-capacity, high-speed dedicated freight corridors
Freight Business Development Portal
One-stop cargo solution for seamless goods transportation
Diamond Quadrilateral network of high-speed rail
Connecting major metros and growth centers of the country
Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan - Self Reliant India
Special economic and comprehensive package of INR 20 lakh Cr towards promoting manufacturing in India.

