February 2026

Indian Railways (IR) is, of course, a key logistics player. It also delivers the very important services of connecting far-flung rural populations and enabling short-range daily commuters to earn their daily bread. Freight generates revenues and profits while ferrying passengers in cost-effective ways, but also has large positive externalities. IR intends to increase rail’s modal share in freight to 45 per cent by 2030. It is also committed to being zero-carbon by 2030 – a tough task for a massive transporter, involving cleaner propulsion and reducing carbon intensity across all operations. In order to deliver on these goals, IR has to undergo continuous reinvention. It must upgrade the track network, improve safety, speed up movements, and induct technology across its myriad processes – and it must do all this in a sustainable manner, while generating profits. Policymakers are well aware of the implications. The FY 2027 budget has allocated a capital outlay of Rs 2.93 trillion. The Railways (Amendment) Bill, 2024 grants more autonomy to the Railway Board, decentralising project approvals, for example. The 2022 land monetisation policy permits new activities on vacant IR land. The budget says IR is thinking of setting up a third dedicated freight corridor (DFC) – the first two DFCs are already running at near-saturation, and the trucks-on-trains service in DFCs emphasises the thrust towards multimodality. Track upgradations, network extensions, and safety and speed enhancements are all works-in progress. About 99 per cent of track length is electrified. IR is phasing out diesel locos, replacing these with electric traction, and looking at experimental technologies such as green hydrogen. It is working towards meeting all its energy requirements through renewables. Innovative signal systems and Kavach are being rolled out for improved safety. New artificial intelligence-driven track surveillance and maintenance systems are also being implemented. All rolling stock, such as locomotives, coaches, wagons, is is being upgraded with modern designs that offer comfort for passengers, better safety, higher capacity (twice as much freight per wagon) and speed. The Amrit Bharat Station Scheme will transform the look and feel of stations while generating additional revenue. Information technology is used end to end by IR. Given the sheer scale and the diversity of tasks it performs, IR is a huge “customer” for cutting-edge technologies such as internet of things, cloud computing, data analytics and machine learning. IR has also carried out many impressive civil engineering feats in extending the network into challenging terrain in the Northeast and Jammu & Kashmir regions, building many tunnels and bridges where these were considered impossible. The 520 km-long Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Corridor is another ambitious project. The reinvention must involve the private sector. For one thing, IR also needs to tap financial markets in addition to internal resources and budget allocations, and this will be easier with private participation across a wider range of activities. The public-private partnership policy is being revised to increase private involvement. Private participation is highly desirable in some 50-odd projects, including port connectivity lines and mineral corridors. IR must stay on track in this course of reinvention to become an organisation of the future. But it must still provide the services that commuters and residents of the hinterland traditionally rely upon. It seems to be well on course to accomplish this.