Govt develops National Rail Plan-2030 to make railways future-ready

The Central government has planned a holistic National Rail Plan (NRP) for India-2030, which would make the railways a future-ready system by the year 2030. Under NRP, the Railways would be capable enough to meet every requirement of passengers with a world-class standard in services. Ashwini Vaishnaw, Railways Minister, said that the aim is to serve future growth demand till 2050. The railway minister said that NRP is also focused on developing strategies based on commercial policy initiatives and operational capacities to boost the modal share of the railways to 45%. Vaishnaw revealed that NRP is prepared to reform the railways to make them greener, more efficient, and advanced to ensure safe, cheaper, and secure transportation mode to the public. The transit time of freight trains would also be decreased to 50 km per hour. The railways would also identify new Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFC), the new High-Speed Railway Corridors and eliminate every unmanned railway level crossing. Additional main objectives of NRP would be to examine the deficiencies of the railway infrastructure, future infrastructure needs, prioritisation of projects, exploring more options, funding assessment, and financial strategies. Moreover, Vaishnaw informed the Ministry of Railways has decided to conduct a survey and prepare a Detailed Project Report (DPR) of seven high-speed rail corridors, which are- Delhi-Varanasi, Delhi-Amritsar, Delhi-Ahmedabad, Mumbai-Nagpur, Mumbai-Hyderabad, Chennai-Bengaluru-Mysuru, and Varanasi-Howrah. He said the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed rail (MAHSR) is the only sanctioned project in the country which is being directed with the technical and financial support of the government of Japan. Image Source Also read: IRMS to merge eight existing services of Indian Railways