For the development of a futuristic railway system by 2030, the Indian Railways has come up with ‘National Rail Plan (NRP) for India-2030’. The information for the same was provided by Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, Ministry of Railways in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha.
Objectives behind NRP:
i.To formulate strategies based on both operational capacities and commercial policy initiatives to increase modal share of the Railways in freight to 45%.
ii.To create capacity ahead of demand, which in turn would also cater to future growth in demand right up to 2050.
For the achievement of objectives, all financial models including Public Private Partnership (PPP) will be considered.
Key Features of NRP:
i.Vision 2024: It is a of NRP, Vision 2024 has been launched funder which implementation of certain critical projects by 2024 will be accelerated such as 100% electrification, multi-tracking of congested routes, upgradation of speed to 160 kmph on Delhi-Howrah and Delhi-Mumbai routes, upgradation of speed to 130kmph on all other Golden Quadrilateral-Golden Diagonal (GQ/GD) routes; and elimination of all Level Crossings on all GQ/GD route.
- Projects to be completed by 2024: 58 Supercritical Projects of a total length of 3,750 km costing Rs 39,663 Crore; and 68 Critical Projects of a total length of 6913 km costing Rs 75,736 crore.
ii.Increasing average speed of freight trains to 50Kmph for reducing the freight transit time.
iii.Identify new Dedicated Freight Corridors.
iv.Identify new High Speed Rail Corridors.
v.Assess Locomotive requirement to meet twin objectives of 100% electrification (Green Energy) and increasing freight modal share.
vi.Assess the total investment in capital required along with a periodical break up.
vii.Involvement of the Private Sector in areas like operations and ownership of rolling stock, development of freight and passenger terminals, development/operations of track infrastructure etc.
Recent Related News:
The Ministry of Railways approved the renaming of the Kevadiya railway station under the Vadodara division of Narmada district (Gujarat) as the Ekta Nagar railway station. The new station code of Ekta Nagar railway station will use the station code EKNR and the numerical code of the station will be 08224620.
About Indian Railways:
It was nationalized in 1951
Chairman and CEO of Railway Board- V K Tripathi
Union Minister– Ashwini Vaishnaw (Rajya Sabha Odisha)
Ministers of State– Danve Raosaheb Dadarao (Constituency- Jalna, Maharashtra), Darshana Vikram Jardosh (Constituency- Surat, Gujarat)
