In June this year, a freight train ran into the Kanchanjunga Express in West Bengal due to over-speeding and a faulty signal leading to 11 deaths. This was among the several train accidents that fuelled the debate around railway safety in India.

Amid rising concerns, Indian Railways has put in motion a three-phase Kavach roll-out plan – the indigenous train collision prevention and avoidance system – that will cover over 66,000 route KMs (rKM) of key and high-density routes out of the total network of 68,000 rKM by 2030. The average cost of installing the system is ₹50 lakh per rKM and ₹80 lakh per locomotive.

In the first phase – currently underway – bids for 14,735 rKM have been invited, while phase II (to be implemented in FY26) will see bids for 17,000 rKM. The third phase – covering FY27 and FY28 – will be for 30,000 rKM. At least 10,000 locomotives, including all new Vande Bharat trainsets, will come pre-installed with the anti train-collision system.

Shield against accidents

As per data from the railways, the number of consequential train accidents has declined from 473 in 2000-01 to 40 in 2023-24; accident per million train kilometres is down to 0.03 in 2023-24 from 0.65 in 2000-01.

Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw in the Lok Sabha said, ₹1,547 crore have been utilised for Kavach installation during FY25 (against Budget allocation of ₹1,112.57 crore). The automatic train protection (ATP) mechanism has already been deployed on 1,548 rKM, on south and north central railways.

Work is in progress on Delhi–Mumbai and Delhi–Howrah corridors (approximately 3,000 rKM ). Trackside works on these routes have been completed on 1,081 RKm (705 rKm in Delhi–Mumbai corridor and 376 rKm on Delhi–Howrah section).

Currently, there are three approved original equipment makers (OEMs) for supply of Kavach.

This apart, railways is expediting works on track renewals, installing advanced signalling systems across stations including electronic interlocking and replacing ICF coaches with LHB (Linke Hofmann-Busch) ones – the latter having better crashworthy features. The Indian railways has been producing only LHB coaches since April 2018.

Vande Bharat trains

Development of Vande Bharat sleeper trains (for overnight travel), Namo Bharat Rapid Rail and Amrit Bharat trains are either underway, or in different phases of implementation. These would be in addition to the now-popular semi high-speed end-to-end travel option of Vande Bharats.

Vaishnaw said, some 10 Vande Bharat Sleeper trains are under production “for long and medium distance journey”. “The first prototype has been manufactured,” he added. Manufacturing of 200 Vande Bharat Sleeper rakes has been awarded to technology partners.

As on December 2, there are 136 Vande Bharat train services for short and medium distance journey; with these trains recording 100 per cent occupancy.

Hydrogen trains are also under development. The ‘Hydrogen for Heritage’ project is being rolled out at an estimated cost of ₹80 crore per train and ground infrastructure of ₹70 crore per route on various heritage or hill routes. Indian railways is planning to retrofit hydrogen fuel cell on existing diesel electric multiple unit (DEMU) rake and a pilot project has been awarded for the same.

Freight ops

Freight services continue to be the key revenue driver, with the transporter’s share in cargo standing at around 26 per cent. Vande cargo trains and double-stack cargo trains are under development.

The Ministry took up construction of two 2,843 km-long dedicated freight corridors (DFC) – Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) from Ludhiana to Sonnagar (1,337 km), which is fully operational; and the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC) from Jawaharlal Nehru Port Terminal (JNPT) to Dadri (1,506 Km), of which 1,404 km are operational (from Dadri to Vaitarana).

The Vaitarna-JNPT (102 km) section of WDFC is pending and expected to be completed by December 2025 or early 2026.

Upcoming freight corridors, includign for energy, minerals and cement, one for port connectivity and another for high traffic density are being developed. All these corridors have been identified under the PM Gati Shakti Mission to facilitate multi-modal connectivity.

Under the Gati-Shakti Multi-Modal Cargo Terminal (GCT) policy, the Centre had set a target to commission 100 GCTs in three years, up to May 2024, out of which 82 new terminals have been commissioned and 192 proposals are in various stages of implementation.

“The railways plan to construct 350 Rail Private Freight Terminals, including Gati Shakti Cargo Terminals, in the coming years and achieve freight loading of 3,000 MT by 2030,” said an official.

Finances

With operating ratio of 98.43 per cent in FY24, concerns remain around high operational ratio of the Indian railways. An operational ratio of 98.43 per cent indicating that to earn every ₹100, the national transporter spends close to ₹98.50.

Even though the operating ratio has increased from 98.10 per cent in FY23, it has come down from 98.43 per cent in FY24 in FY22. The Budget estimates for FY25 is 98.22 per cent.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee has also noted that “net revenue of Indian Railways have been negligible” for FY-23 and FY–24”. Budget estimates for FY25 was at ₹2,800 crore, and the “main reason … is low revenues from the passenger segment”, with the need to increase revenues from the said segment.