- National Rail plan to develop capacity ahead of demand; enhance rail freight share to 45% by 2030
- Plan to electrify entire broad-gauge network by December 2023
NEW DELHI, 11 March 2022: Mr RN Singh, Principal Executive Director (Infra) and Secretary, Railway Board, Ministry of Railways today said that Indian Railways plans to achieve net-zero carbon emission by 2030.
Addressing the ‘4th Smart Railway Conclave’ organized by FICCI, Mr Singh said, “Indian Railways plans to electrify its entire broad-gauge network by December 2023 to achieve the goal of ‘net-zero’ carbon emission by 2030.” He added that it is expected that reliance on fossil fuel-based power for Indian Railways will be significantly reduced by 2030.
Mr Singh stated that Indian Railways is currently focusing on railways share of freight and passenger transport on economic as well as environmental considerations. He further shared that Indian Railways has formulated an ambitious investment program that primarily focuses upon the network capacity enhancement and advancement of core assets including tracks, network, station redevelopment, signaling upgradation and locomotive upgradation.
“Indian Railways has recently launched National Rail plan where the primary objective is to develop capacity ahead of demand and enhance the rail freight share from 27% to 45% by 2030 through massive capital investment,” added Mr Singh.
He further shared that Indian Railways is a major participant in Gati Shakti launched by the government which is likely to become the game changer for infrastructure and logistics scenario.
“In addition, the focus has been on making policy interventions like introduction of new Gati Shakti Cargo Terminal Policy and better PPP model which has been recently launched for hybrid bot which will be deployed for calling the bids for Sonnagar-GOMOH section,” Mr Singh added.
Mr BVN Rao, Chair, FICCI Transport Infrastructure Committee said, “Year 2021 has been a ‘Year of Major Transformation and Achievements’ for Indian Railways. It has witnessed an extraordinary growth in development of infrastructure, freight loading and diversification, enhanced safety, capacity expansion of network, freight train speed. The launch of the Gati Shakti Cargo Terminal Policy will also be instrumental to fast-track approvals and increase the freight loading share of Indian Railways.”
Mr Sandeep Selot, Co-Chair, FICCI Transport Infrastructure Committee said, “Gati Shakti will contribute to the enhancement of multimodal logistics through the length & breadth of the country & will be a critical factor in the overall increasing share of railways in the transportation sector.”
