Ministry of Railways Celebrates a Successful 2024!

In the quest to Vikasit Bharat 2047, Indian Railways continued its transformative journey in the year 2024, paving the way for a new era of modernization and progress. With a strong focus on meeting world class travel experience, boosting freight efficiency, and adopting advanced technologies, the Railways has solidified its role as a catalyst for national growth. Modern stations, state-of-the-art trains, and innovative safety systems are reshaping the landscape of rail travel. Committed to sustainability, the Railways is steadily moving towards greener operations while driving economic development through extensive infrastructure upgrades and capacity building. This year has reaffirmed its vision of becoming a world-class transportation network, blending tradition with innovation to meet the needs of a dynamic and evolving nation.

Enhancing Infrastructure & Speed

Track Renewal Works:

• 6200 Track km rails have been renewed with new rails.
• Complete track renewal for 6450 track km have been done.
• Through Turnout Renewal of 8550 sets have been done.

Raising of sectional speed:

• Raising of sectional speed to 130 kmph has been done over 2000 track km covering parts of Golden Quadrilateral and Diagonal routes and other B routes.
• Raising of sectional speed to 110 kmph have been done over 7200 track km.

Project Engineering & Management:

• All the pending cases of Engineering Department of various Zonal Railways on Indian Railways E-Procurement System (IREPS) have been disposed off under “onetime settlement scheme called “Vivad Se Vishwas II (Contractual Disputes)”.
• In order to address uncertainties in the Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) tendering mode, a new “Schedule G-1” has been included for separate Bill of Quantities (BoQ) for itemized works.
• Master policy for Dispute Redressal Mechanism has been issued for appointing the Conciliator/ DAB member/ SAT member/ Arbitrator(s) and fee payable to them.
• In case of Project Management Services (PMS)/ Project Supervision Services Agency (PSSA) contracts, Procedure order for Measurement, Test Check limit, Material passing and Payments etc. has been issued.
• To fast pace the completion of projects, Powers of Acceptance for Works Tenders have been enhanced to various Accepting Authority including full powers to Chief Administrative Officer/Construction for all works contracts including Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) tenders. Other powers of Modal SOP -2018 have also been delegated to field units for fast execution of projects.
• Electronic Reverse Auction (e-RA) for works tenders has been made optional only.
• Four new modules have been made for web based CRS Sanction Monitoring System like: opening of additional lines of railway and deviation lines (New Lines/GC/Doubling etc.), rebuilding of major & Important Bridges (New, Modification), sanction of Minor Works:- Level Crossings (Manning, Upgradation, Interlocking, New LC, Shifting, LHS), and remodelling of yards
• Procedure Order for Opening of Minor works by Principal Chief Engineer in reference to the Gazette Notification for the Railways (opening for public Carriage of Passengers) Amendment Rules, 2024 has been issued.
• Modified MCNTM (Manpower and Cost Norms for Track Maintainers) formula- 2024 regarding ‘norms/yardsticks for Track maintainers’ has been issued.
• A new Primary Units (Objects) of Expenditure (Revenue) for outsourcing of manpower/ activities for track maintenance" has been created by naming “PU-49”.

Construction of Road Over Bridges

• Elimination of Manned Level Crossings — 718 Nos.
• Construction of ROBs/ RUBs -1024 Nos.

Gati Shakti Projects

• Gati Shakti Multi-Modal Cargo Terminal: In order to boost investment from industry in setting up of cargo terminals, ‘Gati Shakti Multi-Modal Cargo Terminals (GCT) are being developed across the country.
• So far, 354 locations (327 on non-railway land and 27 on railway land) have been identified across the country.
• Till 31.10.2024, 91 GCTs have been commissioned.
• Sanction of Three Economic Corridors in 2024: Under these three corridors namely Energy, Mineral and Cement Corridors, High Traffic Density Routes, and Rail Sagar corridors.
• A total 434 projects have been planned for implementation under these three corridors. In the calendar year 2024, a total of 58 projects out of total 434 projects were sanctioned across three economic corridors, with a combined completion cost of about Rs.88,875 crore and a total track length of about 4,107 kilometers.
• The Energy, Mineral & Cement Corridors accounted for 51 projects, spanning 2,911 kilometers with a completion cost of Rs. 57,313 crore.
• The High Traffic Density Routes included 5 projects, covering about 830 kilometers and costing about Rs. 11,280 crore.
• The Rail Sagar corridor had 2 projects, with a total track length of about 366 kilometers and a completion cost of about Rs. 20,282 crore.

Indian Railways have achieved total commissioning of 3433 Km from 01.04.2024 to till date, which includes 1158 Km New Line, 259 Km Gauge Conversion and 2016 Km Doubling.

Electrification

3,210 Rkms has been electrified during calendar year 2024 & electrified & BG Network of IR has been extended to 97%.

Station Redevelopment:

• Under ‘Amrit Bharat Station Scheme’, 1337 stations have been identified for redevelopment.
• Out of 1337 stations, Tenders have been awarded and work has commenced in 1198 railway stations. Other Railway Stations are at different stages of tendering and planning. Redevelopment of Railway Stations across the country will have a multiplier effect in the economy with increased job creation and improved economic growth.
• Six railway stations viz Rani Kamlapati Station of West Central Railway, Gandhinagar Capital station of Western Railway, Sir M. Visveswaraya Terminal Station of Śouth Western Railway, first phase of Gomti Nagar Railway station of North Eastern Railway, Ayodhya railway station of Northern Railway and Cuttack Railway Station of East Coast Railway have been developed and commissioned.

Information Pertaining to Telecom:

• No Elephant Intrusion Detection System (EIDS): This has been commissioned at critical vulnerable location in NFR (Northeast Frontier Railway) for preventing accidents involving elephants.
• Works have been sanctioned for this purpose covering NFR, ECoR, SR, NR, SER, NER & WR Zones of Indian Railways having a total cost of 208.02 crores. Further, works on 582.25 km (NFR-141 RKms + ECoR-349.4 RKms + SR- 55.85 RKms + NER-36 RKms) have been awarded. The system has been commissioned over 141 RKms at present.
• Development of an Application for monitoring of Coach Guidance System (CGS) and Train Indicators Boards (TIB) integrated with NTES: Railway Board has advised to Zonal Railways and CRIS to integrate the CGS & TIB complying to RDSO specifications Revision-4 and using API based interface. CRIS has developed an application for monitoring of Integration of IPIS with NTES.
• Centralized Announcement System: Centralized Public Address System has been provided at all stations of Bhopal Division under WCR and Deen Dayal Upadhyaya (DDU) Division under ECR.
• Use of Digital VHF sets over Indian Railways: Communication between Loco pilot and Guard. To harness the advantages offered by Digital technology based VHF sets, Railway Board has approved that only Digital 5W Walkie-Talkie sets shall be procured over Indian Railways.
• Tunnel Communication System: The project for provision of Tunnel Communication has been taken up in various Railways.
• Optical Fiber Cable (OFC): In the FY 2023-24, Indian Railways have provided 1411 Rkms of Optical Fiber Cable till Nov’2024. Thereby, reaching a cumulative total of approx. 66588 RKms of IR network. Also 801 RKMs of Quad have been provided till Nov’24, with a cumulative total of approx 66271 RKms of IR network.
• Provision of Wi-Fi facility at Railway Stations: Wi-Fi facility has been provided at 6112 stations so far.
• Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) at Railway Stations: Indian Railways have approved works for provision of CCTV Cameras at all stations except halt stations. So far, CCTV Cameras have been installed at total 1051 stations.

Key Renewable Energy Milestones

• Indian Railways has set a target of becoming a Net Zero Carbon Emitter by 2030.
• As of November 2024, approximately 487 MW of solar plants (both rooftop and ground-mounted) and about 103 MW of wind power plants have been commissioned.
• Additionally, 100 MW of Renewable Energy – Round the Clock (RE-RTC) has also started flowing.
• Approximately 2014 MW of renewable capacity has been tied up.

Train Services

Vande Bharat:

• As on 26th December, 2024, a total of 136 Vande Bharat train services are running across the Indian Railways network.
• During the Calendar year-2024, Indian Railways introduced 62 Vande Bharat services.

Namo Bharat Rapid Rail:

• The first Namo Bharat Rapid Rail between Ahmedabad and Bhuj has been introduced on 17th September, 2024.

Amrit Bharat services:

• Amrit Bharat services, which are fully non-AC trains, presently comprising 12 Sleeper Class Coaches and 8 General Class coaches, are providing high quality services to the passengers.
• During the calendar year-2024, 4 Amrit Bharat Express services Darbhanga–Anand Vihar(T) Express and Malda Town - SMVT Bengaluru Express, have been introduced and more are being planned for further introduction.

Special train services:

• Indian Railway operated a record number of special train services during the year 2024.
• To cater to Holi and Summer rush, a total of 13,523 trips of special trains were operated in comparison to 6,896 during the previous year.
• During Pooja/Deepawali/Chhath, 7990 trips of Special trains have also been operated between the period 1st October, 2024 and 30th November, 2024.

Bharat Gaurav Tourist Trains:

Bharat Gaurav’ Tourist Trains are theme-based tourist circuit trains that aim to showcase India's rich cultural heritage and magnificent historical places.