Indian Railways Expands High-Speed and Freight Rail Network
The Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail (MAHSR) Project (508 km) remains India’s only sanctioned bullet train corridor, under construction with financial and technical support from Japan.
Given the high capital investment, future high-speed rail (HSR) projects will depend on feasibility studies, economic viability, and funding availability.
To enhance speed and capacity on key rail routes, multiple upgrades are underway:
On the Delhi-Mumbai route (1386 km), speed is being raised to 160 kmph, and multi-tracking projects, including a third and fourth line between Dahanu Road and Virar (64 km), are in progress. The Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) is largely operational, with the final 102 km under development.
On the Delhi-Howrah route (1450 km), similar speed upgrades are in progress, along with multi-tracking projects such as the Son Nagar-Andal (375 km) and Mughalsarai-Allahabad (150 km) third lines. The Eastern DFC (1337 km) is fully operational.
Augmentation/Improvement of passenger amenities on Indian Railways is a continuous and on-going process. Accordingly, Ministry of Railways has launched Amrit Bharat Station Scheme for redevelopment of stations which envisages development of stations with a long-term approach. It involves preparation of master plans and their implementation in phases to improve the amenities at the stations like improvement of station access, circulating areas, waiting halls, toilets, lift/escalators as necessary, platform surfacing and cover over platform, cleanliness, free Wi-Fi, kiosks for local products through schemes like ‘One Station One Product’, better passenger information systems, executive lounges, nominated spaces for business meetings, landscaping, etc. keeping in view the necessity at each station.
The scheme also envisages improvement of building, integrating the station with both sides of the city, multimodal integration, amenities for Divyangjans, sustainable and environment friendly solutions, provision of ballastless tracks, etc. as per necessity, phasing and feasibility and creation of city centre at the station in the long term. So far, 1337 stations have been identified for development under Amrit Bharat Station Scheme.
In order to ensure safety, Indian Railways continuously upgrades and modernises its signaling system like Electrical/Electronic Interlocking Systems with centralized operation of points and signals, Complete Track Circuiting of stations, Interlocking of Level Crossing Gates (LC) etc. Indian Railways has also gone for implementation of advance technology system "Kavach" as an Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system which required safety certification of highest order.
