Railways

After 2014, Indian Railways shifted from incremental upkeep to visible modernisation. Capital spending rose to about ₹2.62 lakh crore in 2025-26 — more than nine times the FY14 level. The Vande Bharat Express, India's first modern semi-high-speed train, launched in 2019 and grew to 164 services by December 2025, while broad-gauge electrification reached 99.6%.

The period produced landmark engineering. The Chenab Bridge in Jammu & Kashmir — the world's highest railway arch at 359 m above the river — and the cable-stayed Anji Khad Bridge completed the Kashmir rail link (USBRL). The rebuilt Pamban vertical-lift sea bridge reconnected Rameswaram, and the Bairabi–Sairang line put Aizawl on the rail map. Over 1,300 stations are being rebuilt under the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme.

Indian Railways is a single, government-run network — one of the world's largest — that both owns the tracks and runs the trains. A national timetable threads passenger and freight services over shared lines, which is why the two often compete for the same track. Modernisation runs on three tracks at once: electrifying routes to cut diesel, rolling out the indigenous Vande Bharat trains, and fitting the home-grown Kavach system that automatically brakes a train to prevent collisions.

The plan for the coming decade is a shift to semi-high-speed and high-speed travel. India targets 400+ Vande Bharat services by 2030, with the Vande Bharat Sleeper entering service in 2026 and the first service of the Mumbai–Ahmedabad bullet train expected in August 2027. On freight, the Dedicated Freight Corridors and new terminals aim to lift loading toward 3,000 million tonnes a year by 2029-30.

Two firsts arrived in 2026. On 17 January 2026 the Prime Minister flagged off India's first Vande Bharat Sleeper on the Howrah-Guwahati (Kamakhya) route — 16 coaches, 823 berths, cutting the run to about 14 hours against roughly 17 on the older Saraighat Express, with 12 sleeper rakes planned across long-distance routes in 2026-27. Then on 17 July 2026 he flagged off India's first hydrogen-powered train, the Namo Green Rail, on the 89 km Jind-Sonipat section in Haryana — 10 coaches, capacity around 2,600, emitting only water vapour. Designed and built by the Integral Coach Factory, Chennai, it puts India in the small group of countries running hydrogen passenger rail alongside Germany, Japan, China and the United States.

164 Vande Bharat services (Dec 2025). 99.6% broad-gauge electrified. 16 consequential accidents in 2025-26, down from 135 in 2014-15. World's 2nd-largest rail freight carrier, targeting 3,000 MT/year. ₹2.62 lakh crore capex (2025-26). Sources: Ministry of Railways, PIB.