OUTLOOK

Identifying Transit and the Railway infrastructure development as a critical enabler to the Indian economy, the Indian Government has recently initiated a number of investment and policy initiatives such as:

• The Indian Government has announced an all-time high allocation of US$ 16.85 billion for Railway sector in the Union Budget 2022-23, with a strong thrust on indigenous manufacturer of the trains and parts in India - in line with the current Government’s policy of “Make in India”, which requires maximum supply of products manufactured in India.
  

• The Indian Railways is the largest rail network in Asia and the world’s second-largest under one management. India has the fourth-largest railway system in the world, behind only US, Russia and China.
  The Indian rail network has 123,542 km of total tracks over a 67,415 km route and about 7,300 stations.
  

• Approval for the modernisation of the existing railway trains, has already been given by the Railway Ministry to build, 502 New Generation “Vande Bharat” passenger trains (8032 coaches) within the next three years, with better energy efficiency.

• Under the Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) Project, Tendering is also in process for new High speed 210 train sets (1260 coaches) covering 8 new regional routes .

• The Indian Government has plans to expand the Metro network in different cities and is looking for more external participation for such projects. It has allocated US$ 2.67 billion in 2022-23 for the expansion of Metro train projects in the country with plans to have Metro rails in 27 more cities covering 1,032 kilometres.

• The Indian government planning to invest US$2.2 billion to develop the Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFC) in the various regions of the country.