An internal report from the Ministry of Railways has reportedly revealed that over 21,800 track kilometers (track km) of railway tracks are now ready for semi-high-speed train operations at 130 km/h, matching the standards of Vande Bharat trains.
Around 14,000 track km of fencing have been done to mitigate cattle-related incidents, enabling train operations at speeds "higher than 130 kmph", The Hindu Businesslinereported citing an official in the know.
The total track length across 16 Railway zones, including Eastern, Northern, and South Eastern Railways and others, stands at 1.03 lakh track km.
Out of these, 13 zones are equipped with tracks suitable for semi-high-speed train operations.
The South Central Railway leads with 3,516 km of semi-high-speed tracks, followed by the Central Railway zone with 3,082 km.
The North Central and West Central Railway zones each have over 2,000 track km of semi-high-speed tracks.
Additionally, zones such as East Central, East Coast, North Western, South Eastern, South East Central, and Western Railways each have over 1,000 km of tracks ready for semi-high-speed operations.
However, North Eastern, Northeast Frontier, and South Western Railways currently lack semi-high-speed enabled tracks.
According to the senior officials cited in the Businessline report, railway capital expenditure (capex) rose by over 5 per cent in the first nine months of FY25 (April–December), reaching Rs 1.97 lakh crore compared to Rs 1.87 lakh crore in the same period last year.
Railway revenues increased by approximately 4 per cent during the period under review, climbing to Rs 1.93 lakh crore from Rs 1.85 lakh crore in the previous fiscal period.
The revenue growth was primarily driven by freight operations, which increased by 4 per cent to Rs 1.25 lakh crore from Rs 1.21 lakh crore.
Passenger earnings also contributed significantly, rising by 8 per cent to Rs 41,735 crore from Rs 38,835 crore.
Freight loading recorded a modest 2 per cent increase, adding 24 million tonnes to reach 1,179 million tonnes, compared to 1,155 million tonnes last year.