Metro in India will continue to become a dominant mode of transport in future
The growing demand of Indian Railways is directly related to the growth of economy, the mobility of the population and other related factors. India has the fourth-largest railway system in the world, behind only the US, Russia and China.
- Sandeep Gulati
Regional CEO-South Asia and MD, Egis India
How do you assess the current market scenario of Indian Railways?
The growing demand of Indian Railways is directly related to the growth of economy, the mobility of the population and other related factors. India has the fourth-largest railway system in the world, behind only the US, Russia and China.
The Indian Railways consists of a total track length of 126,366 km over a 67,956 km of route along with 7,335 stations.
Bullet Train: Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail project sanctioned at a total cost of $14.27 billion. The railway sector of India aims to electrify the entire network by 2023 which will lead to annual energy savings of $1.55 billion. Indian Railways has commissioned Wi-Fi at 6,089 railway stations across the country. In order to achieve its green mission, Indian Railways has solarized more than 1,000 stations. As long as 2,000 km of railway network to be brought under Kavach, the indigenous world class TCAS (signalling system) in 2022-23. Kavach has been commissioned at over 850 km in FY22. As many as 400 new-generation Vande Bharat trains are to be manufactured during the next three years.
What are the key developments?
The National Railway Plan (NRP) 2030 will endeavour to harmonize and integrate the rail network with other modes of transport and create synergy for achieving seamless multimodal transportation network across the country.
Indian Railways@2030: Future Perspective:
- High-speed network on Golden Quadrilateral route.
- Introducing new technologies in Railways. Promotion of Digital Systems & Smart Technologies for Indian Railways
- Capacity enhancement and congestion reduction
- Station redevelopment: land & railway infrastructure modernization
- Innovative financing Solutions: investment opportunities for new projects
How do you look at the metro rail development in India? What are the challenges and opportunities you look forward in metro rail sector?
Metro Rail is emerging as the green and preferred sustainable mode of urban commute in India. Metro Rail has been widely accepted as an alternative to mass transport in urban India because of its huge population, heightened vehicular traffic and increasing pollution. Metro in India will continue to become a dominant mode of transport in future. Additionally, other modes of urban transport like rapid rail, light rail etc. are also gaining traction.
Nearly 1,000 km of metro lines are operational in various cities in India and is very soon expected to cross the 2,000 km mark with a series of metro projects under different phases across the country. The government has supported the Metro and rail sector by way of business-friendly policies and financial support.
When we talk about the opportunities, the pace with which the population of India is increasing along with the government's model of development, in such scenario, it's pretty impossible to neglect the Mass Rapid Transit System, especially metro rail. The number of cities with metro rail increased to 18 from 5 in the last five years. The proposal is to increase it to 25 cities by 2025.
Major challenges include: project funding, capital cost and operational revenue, land acquisition, estimation of traffic demand forecasts/ridership, underground versus elevated corridor, LRT vs metro, and loss of trees/green cover.
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