Editorial | Indian Railways: Ensuring Last Mile Connectivity

Prior to 1950 , ther were no railway lines in the country. This changed with the first railway in 1853. Today indian railways transport network connects far flung areas in the country.

Indian railways is the third largest transportation and logistics network of the world operating 21,000 plus trains per day according to data published in Yojana 2015. It runs around 13000 trains to carry over 23 million passengers per day connecting about 8,000 stations spread across the sub continent . The need of the hour is to undertake a massive infrastructure expansion and decongestion programme coupled with upgradation of technology and judicious electrification of tracks along with enhancement of terminal capacity. However The government’s economic rationale for the modernisation push is that capital expenditure on Railways has a huge multiplier effect on the economy. Take the introduction of Vande Bharat Express train, India’s first indigenously built semi-high speed train with enhanced passenger amenities and air purifier systems. It was designed and made by the government-owned Integral Coach Factory in Chennai.

The government intends to introduce 400 Vande Bharat trains during the next five years. The target is also to replace the conventional coaches of all express and mail trains with LHB (designed by German firm Linke Hofmann Busch) and other modern Indian-made coaches.