NEW DELHI: The share of freight transported by railways has increased to 29% after touching a low of 27% in 2022, minister Ashwini Vaishnaw claimed on Tuesday. He said the target is to take this to beyond 35% in the next six years to reduce logistics cost and check air pollution while highlighting the spree of projects worth Rs 70,000 crore cleared by the Cabinet in the past five months.
Giving details of the recent Cabinet decision of augmenting capacity on the Prayagraj-Mumbai corridor of the railways, Vaishnaw said govt has sharpened its focus on infrastructure development to cater to the growing demand. He added the total freight generated in the country is estimated to touch 8,000 million tonne (MTs) by 2032 compared to the current figure of 5,000 MT.
“A substantial portion of this increased freight will be transported by rail. The govt is augmenting all modes of transport. Rail is always a cheaper and cleaner mode of transport than transportation of goods by road,” the minister said.
In the past seven months, the freight transported by railways has increased by nearly 2%; from 993.5 MT last year to 1,014.4 MT this year.
Govt records show that the rail share in freight transport has declined steadily from 85% in 1951, to 60% in 1991, and in 2022 it was only 27%. Roads have become the preferred mode of transport of goods in the past 20 years.
Interacting with reporters, Vaishnaw said the railways has expedited the installation of the anti-collision system, Kavach. It has bid out contracts for installing the system on 10,000 locomotives and laying the track along 15,000 km of railway network. Vaishnaw said the railways has trained around 9,000 employees on Kavach and the average time taken for installing a system in locomotives has been reduced from earlier 14 days to barely 22 hours.
The minister said they are confident of bringing the entire railway network under Kavach system in the next 6-7 years.
