The Future of Rail
Opportunities for energy and the environment
IEA 2019. All rights reserved.
In India, urban transport is regulated at the state level, with states and union territories in charge of planning and developing urban transport systems. For urban metro systems, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) is in charge of central regulation and planning, while states, cities or private entities (in some cases jointly) are in charge of operations and business development. MoR is in charge of safety and standards issues.
The National Transport Development Policy Committee (NTDPC) of India has suggested Page | 134 organisational reforms in IR in the interest of sustaining economic growth in India (NTDPC, 2014). It has recommended an institutional separation of the policy, regulatory and management roles that are currently performed by the Railway Board. The recommended structure would give competence on policy development to the MoR, while a new authority would be responsible for technical regulations and a corporation would be in charge of
operation and management (MoR, 2015).
IEA 2019. All rights reserved.
Status of rail transport
Between 2000 and 2016, passenger activity (measured in passenger-kilometres) on India’s railways increased by 200% and freight activity (in tonne-kilometres) by 150% (Figure 4.2). Despite growing more slowly than rail activity growth, track length has increased and tracks have been upgraded to permit higher speeds and heavier axle load operation. As of 2017, approximately 22 million passengers and 3 million tonnes (Mt) of goods were moved by conventional rail every day (Indian Railways, 2018b), using a fleet of nearly 11 500 locomotives (over 6 000 diesel and nearly 5 400 electric locomotives, the remainder being steam-powered), nearly 55 500 conventional passenger coaches and 278 000 freight wagons.
Although growth in recent years has been impressive, road passenger and freight activity has increased at a faster pace and, as is occurring in many other countries, competition from aviation has been intensifying (NTDPC, 2014). The result has been a gradual decrease in the share of rail in passenger and freight activity (Figure 4.2).
Figure 4.2 Evolution of passenger and freight rail transport activity and share in transport sector in India, 2000-17
1 500 |
|
|
Passenger activity |
|
|
|
1.0 |
|
800 |
|
Freight activity |
1.2 |
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||
km-passengerBillion |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
indexshareModal |
km-tonneBillion |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
indexshareModal |
|||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||
1 200 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
0.8 |
|
600 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
0.9 |
|
900 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
0.6 |
|
400 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
0.6 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||
600 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
0.4 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
200 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
0.3 |
|
||
300 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
0.2 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
0 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
0.0 |
|
0 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
0.0 |
|
2000 |
2005 |
2010 |
2015 |
2017 |
|
|
2000 |
2005 |
2010 |
2015 |
2017 |
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Activity |
|
|
Evolution of modal share (2000=1) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||
Source: IEA based on Indian Railways (2018b) and MoRTH (2017).
Key message • Passenger and freight railway activity in India has steadily increased over time, but at a slower rate than transport by other modes, decreasing the rail modal share.
One reason for the decline in modal share is that the rail network in India has undergone limited expansion over the last 60 years (Planning Commission, 2013). Whereas the total length of national road highways increased by 75% between 2000 and 2015 (MoRTH, 2017), while rail