Indian Railways – Review of 2021: Year of Major Transformation

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Ministry of Railways on Saturday issues a year end review of 2021 and said that 2021 has been a ‘Year of Major Transformation’ for Indian Railways.

Pointing out on some major developments the Railways ministry has added that year 2021 has witnessed an unprecedented growth in development of infrastructure, innovation, capacity expansion of network, freight diversification.

  • Rail Freight operations contributed to the national economic recovery.
  • Covid challenge met head on: Railways ensure delivery of Oxygen to the States through Oxygen Express.
  • Kisan Rail proves to be a boon for farmers.
  • Railways launched a new tourism product i.e. theme based tourist circuit trains ‘Bharat Gaurav’.
  • Railways completed Redevelopment of Gandhinagar Capital (WR) & Rani Kamalapati (WCR) station.
  • TejasRajdhani Trains were introduced on 4 routes.

Indian Railways – 2021 Year End Review

  1. Enhanced Safety
  • Zero passenger fatalities Since April 2019
  • Total 22 consequential accidents compared to 14 during 2020-21 & 48during 2019-20 in the same period (upto 30.12.2021).
  1. Freight Loading
  • Loaded 1029.94 MT during 2021-22 upto 31.12.2021 compared to 870.41 MT in 2020-21 during same period (+159.53 MT) +18%.
  • Highest ever loading in first 8 months of the year (consecutive 16 months in respective month from Sep’20 to Dec’21)
  1. 1646 Mail/ Express trains out of 1768 (93%), Sub- Urban- 5528 out of 5626 (98%) and Passenger- 1599 out of 3634 (44%) trains are running.
  • Presently, Reserved Passengers booking are more than 2019-20
  1. Punctuality of Mail/Express trains is 92.55% during 2021-22 (upto 31.12.2021).
  2. Freight Train Speed:
  • Average Freight Train speed is 44.36kmph during 2021-22 compared to 42.97kmph during 2020-21 (+3.23 %) (upto 31.12.2021).
  1. Infrastructure Progress
  • Highest ever Capital allocation of 2.15 Lakh Cr has been made for infrastructure development during FY 21-22. Expenditure upto Nov’21 is Rs 1,04,238 Cr (48.5%).
  • Railway Electrification Progress:1924 Route km upto 30.12.2021 against 1903 Last year during the period
  • New Line/ Doubling/ Gauge Conversion: 1330.41 km till 30.12.2021 (NL: 120.5 km GC:242.3 km, DL: 967.61 km)
  • 83 ROBs & 338 RUBs upto Nov’21
  • 172 FoBs, 48 Lifts & 50 escalators commissioned upto Nov’21.
  1. Gati Shakti Cargo Terminal Policy: Launched to fast track the approvals and ease of establishing Cargo Terminals to increase the freight loading share of IR.
  2. Kisan Rail
  • The first Kisan Rail Service was flagged off between Devlali (Maharashtra) and Danapur (Bihar) on 7th August 2021 by Hon’ble Minister for Railways and Hon’ble Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare
  • 100th Kisan Rail was flagged off by Hon’ble PM
  • 1806 Kisan Rails run on 153 routes (upto 24.12.2021) and carried around 5.9 lakh tones of agricultural products
  1. Commissioned CCTV at 840 stations (47 during the year).
  2. Commissioned Wi-Fi at a total of 6089 stations (120 during the year).
  3. 5 MHz spectrum in 700 MHz has been allotted to roll out 4G based Long Term Evolution (LTE)  over IR for safety and security applications.
  4. New user friendly Freight and passenger business segment related websites started.
  5. For online & unified vendor approval system, Unified Vendor Approval Module (UVAM) has also been started. Internal processes for approval were simplified and fast tracked.
  6. RDSO becomes the first Standard Developing Organisation (SDO) in India to be granted recognition under the BIS SDO Recognition Scheme on 24 May 2021.
  7. Medical facilities have been ramped up, new facilities have been created and existing facilities have been improved in Railway hospitals.
  • 78 Oxygen generating plants have been installed and are functional in Railway hospitals. 17 more Oxygen plants have been sanctioned and  at different stages of commissioning.
  • 69 Railway hospitals are providing treatment to railway staff affected by Covid-19. In these hospitals the number of beds for Covid treatment has been increased from 2539 to 3948.
  • Total COVID beds have increased to 6972, ICU beds from 273 to 404, invasive ventilators from 62 to 3544, additional 449 non invasive ventilators and 129 high flow nasal oxygen machines. Also 3420 oxygen cylinders, were supplemented in Railway Hospitals.
  1. HMIS (Hospital Management Information System) on IR
  • HMIS  has been provided in 572 Hospitals  & Health Units of Indian Railways  in the last one year and the balance will be covered by March’22.
  • Railway has provided UMID to most of the employees and their family members. Till now 42.09 lakh UMID cards have been generated for Railway Medical Beneficiaries. UMID has also been linked to the National Health Id of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
  1. IndianRailways ran Oxygen Express at the shortest possible time and ramping up the delivery.
  • Railway is trying its best to fulfill the demand of the state Govts who are supplying the tankers.
  • All desired routes and rakes were made ready in almost all areas from the Railway side.
  • Till now more than 899 Oxygen Express Trains have completed their journey and more than 36,840 Tonnes of liquid Oxygen has been delivered to the 15 states.
  • Oxygen Express also delivered oxygen (3911.41 MT) for Bangladesh
  1. Conversion of 4,176 coaches to serve as quarantine/isolation facilities: Out of 4,176 train coaches to serve as quarantine/isolation facilities for COVID-19 across the country, 324 Coaches have been deployed across States of Delhi, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Nagaland, Assam & Tripura as per demand by State Government.
  2. Approximate 10.97 lakh employees get vaccinated with 1st Dose and 8.38 lakh vaccinated with both doses upto 30.12.2021. 135 vaccination centres are in operation on IR
  3. AYUSH facility has been started in 5 Zonal Hospitals at New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai & Guwahati
  4. TejasRajdhani train: 4 RAJDHANI express AanandVihar- Agartala, Mumbai- New Delhi (2) &Rajendra Nagar Terminal (Patna)– New Delhi Rajdhani Express are running with TEJAS rakes over IR.
  5. High capacity 3rd AC Economy coaches (LWACCNE): IR has inducted a new coach variant High capacity 3rd AC Economy coach on 10.02.2021 and produced 33 coaches in the last two months. With these, total 54 Nos. of AC-III Tier economy coaches have been made available over IR. Many innovations have been incorporated in the design of this coach for increased passenger space, the high voltage electric switchgear presently installed on board has been shifted below the under frame for the first time in Indian Railways, thereby increasing the passenger capacity from 72 to 83 berths by introduction of 11 additional berths.
  6. Bharat Gaurav- Theme Based Trains: To tap the vast tourism potential of India, Indian Railways have launched a new tourism product i.e. theme based tourist circuit trains ‘Bharat Gaurav’.
    • Service providers spread across the length and breadth of the country will be able to showcase untapped yet historically significant rich treasures of the country
    • Service Providers would be able to refurbish the coaches and have  been given full flexibility to decide the themes, tariff, interior designs and other business modalities.
  7. Redevelopment of Gandhinagar Capital (WR) & Rani Kamalapati (WCR) station: Gandhinagar Capital station is the first redeveloped station commissioned on 16.07.2021. Rani Kamalapati is the Second redeveloped station and same was  commissioned on 15.11.2021. Both the stations were inaugurated by Hon’ble Prime Minister.
  8. End of Train Telemetry (EoTT):  Proof of Concept Trials is being conducted for EoTT in East Coast & South Eastern Railway. 3 sets are under trial in ECoR& Stage 2 Procurement of 740 sets is under process.
  9. Rolling Stock Production (upto Nov’21):
  • Electric Locomotives: 570 as compared to 414 last years (Target: 981)
  • LHB Coaches: 3790 as compared to 2788 last year (Target: 6497)
  • Vista dome Coaches: Produced: 13 (upto Nov’21) (Target : 90). Total available: 57

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Manish Khandelwal
Manish Khandelwal

Manish Khandelwal, a travel-tech enthusiast with over a decade of experience in the travel industry. Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Travelobiz.com, he's passionate about writing.

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