National Rail Plan aims to increase modal share of Railways in freight to 45 percent, says Piyush Goyal

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New Delhi: Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday (March 10) announced that the Indian Railways has prepared a National Rail Plan (NRP) to create a ‘future ready’ Railway system latest by 2030. 

The Union Railway Minister, in a written reply in Lok Sabha, said the NRP is aimed to formulate strategies based on both operational capacities and commercial policy initiatives. The step is to increase the modal share of the Railways in freight to 45 percent.

Goyal said that the aim of the National Rail Plan is to create capacity ahead of demand in the nation and this step will also cater to future growth in demand right up to 2050 and also increase the modal share of Railways to 45 percent in freight traffic.

“The draft plan has been put up in the public domain and is also being circulated amongst stakeholders for comments,” he added.

The Minister stated in the lower house that urban transportation is an integral part of urban development which is a state subject and for this very reason, the concerned state governments are responsible for initiating and developing urban transport infrastructure, including metro rail projects/MetroLite/MetroNeo in cities or urban agglomerates.

The Union railways minister in his written reply also stated that the Central Government considers financial assistance for metro rail proposals, on the basis of the feasibility of the proposal and availability of resources, as and when posed by the concerned state governments. Details of new technologies are as MetroLite, MetroNeo.

Goyal said, “Business Development Units (BDUs) have been set up to attract new business by providing compelling value-for-money logistics solutions.”

The minister revealed that the Indian Railways is undertaking a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) approach for Passenger Train Operations to enhance overall service quality and operational efficiency.

“Indian Railways has leveraged digital platforms to encourage transparency in all the facets of functioning to enhance customer satisfaction and outreach,” he added.