News Brief

Indian Railways Achieves Major Milestone: Nearly 22,000 Km Of Tracks Ready For Semi-High-Speed Train Operations

Kuldeep Negi

Jan 03, 2025, 01:07 PM | Updated 01:07 PM IST


The new orange colour Vande Bharat train.
The new orange colour Vande Bharat train.
  • 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 Businessline reported 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.
  • Also Read: Private Capex Cycle Revival Unlikely To Materialise In 2025: RBI Survey
  • Kuldeep is Senior Editor (Newsroom) at Swarajya. He tweets at @kaydnegi.


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