Railways aims to carry 12 billion passengers per annum by 2030

The National Rail Plan-2030, which is likely to be released in December this year, has projected that 12 billion passengers per annum may travel in trains by 2030 against the current 8 billion per annum.

Apart from the increase in passenger volume, other important focus of the NRP-30 including an increase in the freight volume, the project has also aimed to speed up passengers and goods train, scrapping low footfall halts of trains, introduction of private trains, giving a seat on demand to passengers by doing away waiting list problems.

The railways also plans to augment its infrastructure development by spending Rs 50 lakh crore by 2030.

The national transporter seems determined to make the entire Golden Quadrilateral and Golden Diagonal routes operational at 160 kmph speed. Besides, railways will also build a more dedicated freight corridor for seamless movement of freight.

The railways has also been working on increasing the operating ratio by reducing cost and improving its finances.

The government also had asked railways to meet a 45% modal share in transportation against the current 26%, said an official.

The NRP will also give direction to railways on how to finance the projects and increase capital expenditure in the coming days, said an official in the railways.

The NRP-30 has also emphasised increasing goods trains up to 50 km per hour from the current 25 km and passenger trains around 150 to 160 km per hour on major routes.