Average speed of freight trains is only 25 km/hr, increasing it is of prime importance: Standing Committee Report

Most of the earnings of Indian Railways comes from its freight services. In 2023-24, Indian Railways earned revenue of Rs 1,68,293 Crore and target to achieve Rs 1,80,000 Crore during 2024-25. The standing committee, which is being headed by Andhra Pradesh BJP leader CM Ramesh, also urged the ministry to expedite work on new DFCs.

The Parliamentary committee also expressed concerns over expansion of Kavach, an automatic train protection system, and said that it is slowly progressing.

“Kavach has so far been deployed on 1,465 route km of the South Central Railway and 80 route km on North Central Railway. The Committee are also aware that tender have been invited for Delhi-Chennai, Mumbai- Chennai and other important corridors. The Committee feel that there is urgent need to speed up Kavach related works and ensure faster penetration of Kavach across Indian Railway Network,” said the Committee.

Union Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw in a written reply in Lok Sabha last month said that Kavach work is ongoing on approximately 3,000 route km and track side works on these routes have been completed on about 1081 Route km.

Kavach aids the Loco Pilot in running of train within specified speed limits by automatic application of brakes in case Loco Pilot fails to do so and also help the trains to run safely during inclement weather.

The committee also looked into the Research & Development wing of Indian Railways i.e Research Design & Standards Organization (RDSO). It expressed concerns that the Railways have not been able to utilize even the limited fund allocation.

“The Committee observe that budget estimates for Railway Research for year 2024-25 has been kept at only Rs 72.01 crore. Further it is additionally concerning that the Railways have been unable to utilize the limited allocated funds for research during the past two years. Against Revised Estimates of 107 cr in 2022-23 and 66.52 cr in 2023-24, the actual expenditure was Rs 39.12 cr and Rs 28.34 cr respectively,” said the Standing committee on Railways. It further said that the Research & Development is a prudent investment in the long term for modernisation of Indian Railways and ministry should take urgent steps in this direction.

The Committee also noted that the net revenue of Indian Railways have been negligible for the year 2022–23 and 2023–24. Further, the budget estimate of Net Revenue for the year 2024–25 has been kept at just Rs 2,800 crores.

It said that the main reason behind the situation is low revenue from passenger segment and the ministry should review revenues with regard to AC classes to reduce losses in passenger segment.

“The Committee feel that Indian Railways need to make a comprehensive review of its passenger fares in different trains and classes. Committee feel that ‘General class’ travel must remain affordable for the masses but at the same time the Committee urge Indian Railways to review its revenues with regard to AC classes by aligning it with costs incurred to reduce losses in passenger segment.