The Indian Railways continued its transformative journey in the year 2024 by focusing on safety and infrastructure. As many as 1,000 locomotives were equipped with Kavach safety technology and also trained 9,000 technicians.
As a result of various safety measures taken over the years, there has been a steep decline in the number of accidents. The consequential train accidents during the period 2004-14 was 1711 (average 171 per annum), which declined to 678 during the period 2014-24 (average 68 per annum).
Enhanced Rail Track Infrastructure & Speed
Track Renewal Work
1 6,200 track km renewed with new rails
2 Completed track renewal for 6,450 track km.
3 Through Turnout Renewal of 8,550 sets
Raising of sectional speed
1 Raising of sectional speed to 130 kmph done over 2,000 track km covering parts of Golden Quadrilateral and Diagonal routes and other eight routes.
2 Raising of sectional speed to 110 kmph done over 7200 track km.
This apart, all pending cases of Engineering Department of various Zonal Railways on Indian Railways E-Procurement System (IREPS) have been disposed off under “onetime settlement scheme called “Vivad Se Vishwas II (Contractual Disputes)”.
Construction of Road Over Bridges (ROBs)/Road Under Bridges (RUBs) from January to November
The railways eliminated 718 manned level crossings and constructed 1,024 ROBs/RUBs
Gati Shakti Projects
Gati Shakti Multi-Modal Cargo Terminal
In order to boost investment from industry in setting up of cargo terminals, ‘Gati Shakti Multi-Modal Cargo Terminals (GCT) are being developed across the country. So far, 354 locations (327 on non-railway land and 27 on railway land) have been identified across the country. Til Octover 31, at least 91 GCTs have been commissioned.
Sanction of three economic corridors
The railways sanctioned Energy, Mineral and Cement corridors, high traffic density routes and rail sagar corridors, A total of 434 projects have been planned for implementation under the three corridors. A total of 58 projects out of 434 were sanctioned across three economic corridors, with a combined completion cost of about Rs 88,875 crore and a total track length of about 4,107 km.
Commissioning of projects in 2024 till date
Indian Railways achieved total commissioning of 3433 Km from April 1 till date, which includes 1,158 Km new line, 259 km gauge conversion and 2,016 km Doubling.
Station Redevelopment:
Under ‘Amrit Bharat Station Scheme’, 1,337 stations were identified for redevelopment and tenders were awarded and work commenced on 1,198. Six railway stations - Rani Kamlapati Station of West Central Railway, Gandhinagar Capital station of Western Railway, Sir M. Visveswaraya Terminal Station of Śouth Western Railway, first phase of Gomti Nagar Railway station of North Eastern Railway, Ayodhya railway station of Northern Railway and Cuttack Railway Station of East Coast Railway were developed and commissioned.
Projects pertaining to telecom
No Elephant Intrusion Detection System (EIDS) was commissioned at critical vulnerable locations in Northeast Frontier Railways for preventing accidents involving elephants.
Centralized Announcement System
Centralized Public Address System was installed at all stations of Bhopal Division under WCR and Deen Dayal Upadhyaya (DDU) Division under ECR.
Optical Fiber Cable (OFC)
In 2023-24 fiscal, Indian Railways provided 1,411 Rkms of Optical Fiber Cable till November, 2024 reaching a cumulative total of approx. 66,588 route km of network. The railways has extended Wi-Fi to 6,112 stations so far.
CCTVs at stations
Indian Railways have approved works for provision of CCTV cameras at all stations except halt stations. So far, CCTV cameras have been installed at total 1051 stations.
Key renewable energy milestones
Indian Railways has set a target of becoming a Net Zero Carbon Emitter by 2030. As of November 2024, approximately 487 MW of solar plants (both rooftop and ground-mounted) and about 103 MW of wind power plants have been commissioned. Additionally, 100 MW of Renewable Energy – Round the Clock (RE-RTC) has also started flowing. Approximately 2,014 MW of renewable capacity has been tied up.
Vande Bharat
As on December 26, a total of 136 Vande Bharat trains are running across the Indian Railways network. During 2024, 62 Vande Bharat services were introduced in the country.
Namo Bharat Rapid Rail
The first Namo Bharat Rapid Rail between Ahmedabad and Bhuj has been introduced on 17th September, 2024.
Amrit Bharat services
Amrit Bharat services, which are fully non-AC trains, presently comprising 12 sleeper class coaches and eight General Class coaches, are providing high quality services to the passengers. During the calendar year-2024, 4 Amrit Bharat Express services Darbhanga–Anand Vihar(T) Express and Malda Town SMVT Bengaluru Express, were introduced and more are being planned.
Special train services
Indian Railways operated a record number of special train services during the year 2024. To cater to Holi and Summer rush, a total of 13,523 trips of special trains were operated compared to 6,896 during the previous year. During Pooja/Deepawali/Chhath, 7,990 trips of special trains were operated between October 1 and and November 30. .
Bullet Train Project
Over 243 km of viaduct construction was completed under the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet Train Project, along with 352 km of pier work and 362 km of pier foundation work. Bridges were constructed across 13 rivers, and multiple railway lines and highways crossed through five steel bridges and two PSC bridges. Track construction in Gujarat is progressing rapidly, with RC (Reinforced Concrete) Track Bed construction underway in Anand, Vadodara, Surat, and Navsari districts. 71 track km of RC track bed construction has been completed, and welding of rails has commenced on the viaduct. In Maharashtra, the first concrete base-slab for the Mumbai Bullet Train Station was successfully cast at a depth of 32 metres, equivalent to a 10-storey building. Work on the 21 km tunnel between Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) and Shilphata is underway, with an Intermediate Tunnel (ADIT) of 394 metres completed to facilitate main tunnel construction. Construction of seven mountain tunnels using the New Austrian Tunnelling Method (NATM) is progressing in Palghar district. The only mountain tunnel in Gujarat has already been successfully completed.
Operation of more trains with modern LHB coaches:
The Production units of Indian Railways are producing only LHB coaches from April, 2018 onwards and trains operated with ICF coaches are being converted so as to run with LHB coaches. During 2024 (till November), more than 75 pairs of trains have been so converted.
Record freight loading
From January to November, the revenue earning freight loading on Indian Railways has been 1473.05 MT, recording a growth of 3.86% over the corresponding period of last year.
Digital initiatives
E-ticketing touched 86% in reserved sector and went up from 28% at the beginning of current financial year to around 33% in October in unreserved sector. Indian Railways has also transformed the refund process enabling refunds in eligible cases within 24 hours in around 98% of cases. A dynamic QR code based payment has been enabled across all the counters of Indian Railways. The facility is also being proliferated across the parcel offices and all parcel offices would be covered by the end of current financial year.
Recruitment and Workforce Management
1 The Ministry of Railways has introduced a system of publishing an annual calendar from 2024 for recruitment to various categories of Group ‘C’ posts.
2 Benefits for the aspirants in the following manner
3 Opportunities to those becoming eligible every year;
4 Certainty of exams;
5 Faster Recruitment process, Training and Appointments
5 More opportunities for candidates;
6 Through, ten Centralized Employment Notifications (CENs) for about 92,000 vacancies have been/are being notified during January to December 2024 for filling up of various posts
Capital expenditure
The total capex for 2024-25 stands at ₹ 2,65,200 crore which is the highest amount allocated in the budget, till now.
Indian Railways’ heritage
At present, 80 heritage stations and 78 building and structures exist over Indian Railways’ system and have been uploaded on the website. Digitization of National Rail Museum archives including books, photographs, maps, documents etc. is being done in collaboration with C-DAC, Pune. The website “Indian Railway Archive – Railway Heritage Portal” can be accessed at www.railheritage.in by rail heritage enthusiasts to read all the digitized documents.
An exhibition titled "Mountain Railways" has been organized on April 18, the World Heritage Day at National Rail Museum and India's second oldest Steam Locomotive, Ramgotty ( 1862), a star exhibit was steamed up for the visitors. ‘Baby Sivok’, the smallest steam engine built in 1881 is now proudly displayed at Ghum station, offering tourists a tangible link to the Railway’s rich legacy. Kashi railway station under Northern Railway, built in the year 1882, has been included in the list of heritage railway stations.
Achievements RPF during the year 2024 (up to November)
The Railway Protection Force till November attended 19,590 complaints on Twitter. The RPF also attended 3,35,720 complaints on its Helpline number.
Operation “Nanhe Faristey”(Rescue of children)
Ministry of Railways in collaboration with Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD) issued a revised Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) in Oct. 2024.
Indian Railways shines at Paris Olympics
Three Railway players won medals at Paris Olympics. While Aman Sehrawat and Swapnil Kusale won Bronze in Wrestling and Shooting respectively, Amit Rohidas was part of the Indian Hockey team that won Bronze at the Olympics.
