New Delhi: In an endeavor to address the inadequacies of capacity constraints and improve its share in total freight ecosystem of the country, Indian Railways has come up with draft National Rail Plan.
A long-term strategic plan called the National Rail Plan has been developed to plan infrastructural capacity enhancement along with strategies to increase the modal share of the Railways, Indian Railways said in a release.
The National Rail Plan will be a common platform for all future infrastructural, business and financial planning of the Railways. This plan is being circulated among various ministries for their views now. Railways aim to finalise the final plan by January 2021.
Indian Railways stated that amongst one of the most important objectives of the plan is to create capacity ahead of demand by 2030, which in turn would cater to growth in demand right up to 2050 and also increase the modal share of Railways from 27 per cent currently to 45 per cent in freight by 2030 as part of a national commitment to reduce carbon emission and to continue to sustain it.
Indian Railways plans to reduce the transit time of freight substantially by increasing average speed of freight trains from present 22 kmph to 50 kmph. It aims to reduce the overall cost of rail transportation by nearly 30 per cent and pass on the benefits to the customers.