Railways now move 29% of freight, up from 27% in 2022, according to minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. He stated that the goal is to increase this to more than 35% in the next six years to cut logistics costs and air pollution, citing the Cabinet’s approval of projects worth Rs 70,000 crore in the previous five months.
Giving details of the recent Cabinet decision to increase capacity on the railways’ Prayagraj-Mumbai route, Vaishnaw said the government has increased its focus on infrastructure development to meet rising demand. He stated that the country’s overall freight generation is expected to reach 8,000 million tonnes (MTs) by 2032, up from 5,000 MT currently.
“A significant amount of the increased freight will be transported by rail. The government is enhancing all kinds of transportation. The minister stated that rail is always a less expensive and cleaner means of transportation than vehicle traffic.
The freight handled by railways has climbed by about 2% over the last seven months, from 993.5 MT last year to 1,014.4 MT this year. According to government figures, rail’s proportion of freight transport has steadily fallen from 85% in 1951 to 60% in 1991, and 27% in 2022. Over the last two decades, roads have emerged as the main form of transit for commodities.
Interacting with reporters, Vaishnaw stated that the railroads have expedited the installation of the anti-collision technology, Kavach. It has awarded contracts to install the system on 10,000 locomotives and lay track across 15,000 km of railway network. According to Vaishnaw, the railways have trained around 9,000 people in Kavach, and the average time for installing a system in a locomotive has been lowered from 14 days to 22 hours. The minister stated that they are sure of placing the entire railway network under the Kavach system within the next 6-7 years.
