Indian Railways have prepared a National Rail Plan (NRP) for India which will create a 'future ready' railway system by 2030, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw informed the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
In a written reply, Vaishnaw said that the NRP is aimed to formulate strategies based on both operational capacities and commercial policy initiatives to increase the modal share of the railways in freight to 45 per cent.
He also informed that the objective of the plan is to create capacity ahead of demand, which in turn would also cater to future growth in demand right up to 2050 and also increase the modal share of Railways to 45 per cent in freight traffic and to continue to sustain it.
The key objectives of the National Rail Plan are to formulate strategies based on both operational capacities and commercial policy initiatives to increase the modal share of the railways in freight to 45 per cent, the minister said.
In addition, Reduce transit time of freight substantially by increasing the average speed of freight trains to 50 Kmph, he added.
As part of the National Rail Plan, Vision 2024 has been launched for accelerated implementation of certain critical projects by 2024 such as 100 per cent electrification, multi-tracking of congested routes, up-gradation of speed to 160 kmph on Delhi-Howrah and Delhi-Mumbai routes, up-gradation of speed to 130 kmph on all other Golden Quadrilateral-Golden Diagonal (GQ/GD) routes and elimination of all Level Crossings on all GQ or GD route.
According to the Railway ministry, NRP also suggests identifying new Dedicated Freight Corridors and new High-Speed Rail Corridors.
The plan also includes assessment of rolling stock requirement for passenger traffic as well as wagon requirement for freight and assessing Locomotive requirement to meet twin objectives of 100 per cent electrification (Green Energy) and increasing freight modal share.
Assessment of the total investment in capital that would be required along with a periodical break up is also included in NRP, Vaishnaw said.
He also added that the sustained involvement of the private sector in areas like operations and ownership of rolling stock, development of freight and passenger terminals, development or operations of track infrastructure etc.
It is notable that 58 supercritical projects of a total length of 3750 kms costing Rs 39,663 crore and 68 critical projects of a total length of 6913 kms costing Rs 75,736 crore have been identified for completion by 2024.
( With inputs from ANI )
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