Will increase passenger capacity on railways by 3 billion: Vaishnaw

After a ministry-wide Chintan Shivir held over two days, Union Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Thursday said an action plan was in the works to augment passenger traffic on Indian Railways to 11 billion travellers a year.

Current capacity of the railway network was 8 billion, but the demand was for an additional 3 billion, Vaishnaw said, adding that the Centre’s aim was to eliminate waiting tickets in rail travel.

Passenger and freight trains in India are riddled with delays, largely due to infrastructural shortcomings of tracks that allow for slower speeds even if the locomotives are capable of higher speeds, such as Vande Bharat.

“Productive discussions were held on how to bring half of the rail network (30,000 route kilometres) on a sectional speed of 160-180 km per hour (kph),” Vaishnaw said.