New Railway Lines To Help Decongest Rail Network, Facilitate Running More Trains

Stepping up the capacity enhancement with laying new rail line, the Railways has commissioned 820.05 km long rails in the current fiscal as against 284 km for the same period in the last fiscal.

While a maximum new line (759 km) was commissioned as doubling, broad gauge conversion was also done in some sections, according to the Railways data.

The capacity enhancement has helped the national transporter to run more goods trains as well as passenger-carrying services in the Indian rail network. Commissioning of more new railway lines is expected to decongest the saturated routes and facilitate running of more trains, said a senior Railway Ministry official.

Till now, the Railways has pressed into service 1,916 Mail/Express trains as against 1,768 Mail/Express trains during the pre-Covid period.

Some passenger trains were converted to Mail/Express trains because of high demand for the service besides additional trains were also introduced in the recent times, said the official.

However, 184 local trains which were operational before Covid, are yet to be pressed into service because of various reasons.

"These local trains are likely to be made operational this month only as preparations are being finalised for the service to resume," added the official.

The passenger earnings have increased in the current fiscal due to running of more passenger-carrying trains as compared to the last year. The Railways earned Rs 21,283 crore as passenger revenue in the current fiscal as against Rs 8,912 crore in the last fiscal for the same period, an increase of 137 per cent.

In the freight sector also, the goods loading from April to July has been 501.53 million tons as against 452.13 MT achieved in 2021-22, an increase of 49.40 MT, with a growth of 10.92 per cent over the same period last year.

Indian Railways has recorded the best ever July monthly loading of 122.14 MT. The incremental loading in the month of July has been 9.3 MT, a growth of 8.25 per cent over the previous year in July.

The sustained efforts of Indian Railways to increase supply of coal to power houses, in close coordination with the Ministry of Power and Coal, have been one of the key features of the freight performance in the month of July.

The loading of coal (both domestic and imported) to power houses has increased by 13.2 MT in July with 47.98 MT coal being moved to power plants as against 34.74 MT last year, a growth of 38 per cent.

Cumulatively, in the first four months of the year, the Railways has loaded more than 47.95 MT extra coal to power houses as compared to the same period of last year, with a growth of more than 32 per cent.

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