Indian Railways, one of the largest ministries of the government, has the dual responsibility of adopting advanced technology and increasing its capacity in view of the current needs, as well as providing affordable passenger facilities to the people, which has always been its priority. Capacity expansion is directly related to problems like increasing crowd in trains, accidents and not getting confirmed tickets on time, which always persist.

The second factor of affordable passenger facilities is linked to the government’s responsibility towards the public. Apart from this, its share in freight transport across the country will also have to be increased, which is a more economical, faster and ‘green’ means of transport than road transport. Railways is also under pressure due to the increasing pension bill of more than Rs 50,000 crore per year, which has deteriorated its financial health to a great extent.

What needs to be done

• Capacity Addition To increase capacity, the focus will continue to be on multi-tracking, single and doubling of tracks. India has achieved the capacity of laying new tracks at a speed of 7.8 km per day in the last decade. Major corridors like Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah are being upgraded to speeds of up to 160 km per hour. The Eastern and Western Dedicated Freight Corridors are expected to become operational this year, which will reduce the time taken in freight transportation by 40 percent. With 94 percent electrification complete, the target is to reach 100 percent by the end of the year.
• Safety is paramount Despite many important steps taken towards improvement, safety is still a big challenge. In 2023-24, several accidents like train collision and derailment occurred in Balasore (Odisha), Raghunathpur (Bihar) and Vijayanagaram (Andhra Pradesh), in which many passengers lost their lives due to avoidable human errors. In such a situation, it is important that the government should seriously consider technical solutions that reduce the scope of human errors by keeping safety paramount. To reduce accidents by 60 percent, it will have to focus on advanced signaling systems like ETCS Level-2 based Kavach system. Along with this, human monitoring is also necessary.
• Work on increasing efficiency Only by focusing on digital and mechanized solutions for maintenance will efficient operations of Vande Bharat Express and the proposed Vande Metro trains etc. be ensured. For this, increasing efficiency will be of utmost importance because only then additional routes will be opened for passenger trains and speed and efficiency will improve. The sleeper versions of Vande Bharat are yet to come on track. Modernization of more than 1,300 railway stations marked under Amrit Bharat branding will also be an important task.
• New sources of revenue It is of utmost importance to diversify the freight traffic and gradually reduce the railways’ dependence on coal, as it is its biggest source. The railways’ experiments in transporting white goods (domestic consumer products) and non-traditional goods and increasing the capacity to transport goods to remote areas have proved to be very encouraging in the past.
• Bullet Train The country’s first bullet train corridor between Mumbai-Ahmedabad can be started during this tenure of the Modi government. The government aims to start one section in the next few years. The project is currently stuck in limbo due to the talks with Japanese companies not reaching any conclusion. Therefore, it will be challenging to complete it on time. Railways is also considering building its own ‘bullet train’ which will be based on the Vande Bharat platform and can reach a speed of about 250 kilometers per hour. Railways will need to pay special attention to all these projects.

Who is responsible for this?

Ashwini Vaishnav, 53 years BJP, Railway Minister

> Civil Services Before joining the service, Vaishnav completed his schooling in Jodhpur, then graduated with a gold medal in Electronics and Communication from MBM Engineering College. After doing M.Tech from IIT Kanpur, he became an IAS officer in 1994. After this, he did an MBA from Wharton School and left the civil service in 2010 and joined the private sector.

> Political path Vaishnav first worked in the PMO during the tenure of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. In 2021, PM Modi entrusted him with the responsibility of key ministries like Railways, Electronics and Information Technology and Communications. Since 2019, he is a Rajya Sabha member of the BJP from Odisha

> Increasing influence As a result of this, Vaishnav has now got another important department like Information and Broadcasting along with Railways, Electronics and IT. This is a sign of his increasing stature in the Modi government.

Ravneet Singh, 48 years BJP

>The only minister from Punjab Former Punjab CM Beant Singh’s grandson left Congress before Lok Sabha elections and joined BJP and lost the election from Ludhiana

V. Somanna, 73 years BJP

, Before Tumkuru, this Union Minister, Veerashaiva-Lingayat leader and first-time Lok Sabha MP from Tumkuru has been a minister in Karnataka. His roots are connected to Janata Dal and Congress.

, Abhishek G. Dastidar