Indian Railways is aggressively executing a major network modernization and expansion strategy to decongest its operational choke points, enhance freight capacity, and increase its share of national cargo transportation from 27% to 3,000 million tonnes by 2030. Freight transport currently generates over 65% of total rail revenues and cross-subsidizes passenger traffic. However, severe capacity saturation, with over 76% of its 11,051-km High Density Networks (HDNs) operating at 100% to over 150% capacity, has kept average freight train speeds at a sluggish 25 km/h and driven significant logistics traffic toward expanding national highways.
To overcome these structural bottlenecks and compete effectively, the Railways is focus-building infrastructure across its seven main trunk routes. The government is moving to quadrupling (four-lining) the high-traffic corridors handling over 40% of national rail traffic, backed by recent cabinet approvals for eight multitracking projects spanning 1,196 km worth ₹20,804 crore. Additionally, with the Western and Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFCs) now operational and running over 420 goods trains daily, the Railways is expediting a new 1,738-km East-West DFC from Dankuni to Surat, with additional coastal corridors in the pipeline. By shifting long-haul cargo from road (₹3.60 per tonne-km) to rail (₹1.60 per tonne-km), these structural upgrades aim to slash India’s overall national logistics costs from 12–13% of GDP down to 8–9%.