(a) whether the Railways aims to increase its share in freight movement from the present 27 per cent to 45 per cent by 2030 and, if so, the details thereof;
(b) the steps taken/being taken by the Government to monitor the train services; and
(c) the initiative(s) taken/being taken by the Government to ascertain the requirements from the State Governments for running more trains in their respective States?
MINISTER OF RAILWAYS, COMMERCE & INDUSTRY AND CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD & PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION
(SHRI PIYUSH GOYAL)
(a) to (c) : A Statement is laid down on the Table of the House.
STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (c) OF UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 4688 BY SHRIMATI NAVNEET RAVI RANA TO BE ANSWERED IN LOK SABHA ON 24.03.2021 REGARDING SHARE IN FREIGHT MOVEMENT
(a) : Indian Railways have prepared a National Rail Plan (NRP) for India – 2030. The Plan is to create a ‘future ready’ Railway system by 2030. The objective of the Plan is to create capacity ahead of demand, which in turn would also cater to future growth in demand right up to 2050 and also increase the modal share of Railways to 45% in freight traffic and to continue to sustain it. The draft plan has been put up in the public domain (The Indian Railways website) and is also being circulated amongst stakeholders for comments/remarks.
(b) : The Indian Railways utilizes state of the art technology for monitoring train services. Freight train services are monitored through Freight Operations Information System (FOIS) and for passenger trains, the system used is Coaching Operations Information System (COIS), both of which use Information Technology as an aid to decision-making and ultimately improving train services. The FOIS & COIS enable optimum utilization of costly assets and resources by improving the distribution of rolling stock along with scheduling/time tabling and routing of trains in order to meet customer demand. The FOIS & COIS provides continuous train monitoring and instant access to information regarding status of trains to customers. For continuous tracking of trains and monitoring them on a real time basis, the Railways have a large number of control offices distributed over the network. The railway control offices use comprehensive software, Control Office Application (COA), for charting and planning train services on a section. The COA is integrated to both FOIS & COIS, so that monitoring of train services and decision-making is done on a real time basis.
(c) : In order to run trains to meet the commodity specific demand of State Governments, a tripartite procedure has been established. The State Governments requirements/demands for commodities such as food, fertilizer, POL, coal for power, minerals etc. is first assessed by the nodal central agency such as Ministry of Food & Civil Supplies, Department of Fertilizer, Ministry of Petroleum, Ministry of Coal, Ministry of Power, Ministry of Mines etc. and the concerned nodal central agency then co-ordinates with the Ministry of Railways for running of freight trains to meet the State Governments requirements.
The Indian Railways has always taken the initiative in running more passenger and freight trains to meet the State Governments requirements as well as providing relief during disasters, calamities, melas, fares etc. In addition the Indian Railways runs pilgrims trains on demand made by State Governments.
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