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 climbed from around 40% to nearly 99%.

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 Mumbai–Ahmedabad bullet train commissioning in phases from FY27. On freight, the Dedicated Freight Corridors and new terminals aim to lift loading toward 3,000 million tonnes a year by 2029-30.

The road ahead is about rebalancing — winning more freight back to rail (its share has drifted to about 27%) and rolling out the indigenous Kavach safety system across the whole network over the coming years.

164 Vande Bharat services (Dec 2025). ~99% 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.