Indian Railways plans to operate more than 1,000 additional regular trains after expanding seven major railway corridors to four parallel tracks, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Saturday. The capacity expansion is intended to ease congestion, improve reservation availability and reduce passenger waiting lists on routes connecting Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.
The seven corridors include routes linking the four major cities and three diagonal connections: Delhi–Chennai, Mumbai–Kolkata and Delhi–Guwahati. The projects involve expanding sections with two existing tracks to four parallel lines, creating additional operating capacity for passenger and freight services.
Vaishnaw said the additional trains would be introduced after the four-lining work is completed. “Once this four-lining is complete, we will be able to run over 1,000 additional regular trains. This will significantly alleviate the pressure on waiting lists and reservation availability,” he said, according to the Economic Times report.
The proposed services will be regular trains and are separate from the special trains being operated to manage the current festive-season rush. The Railways has identified the corridors as priority routes because of heavy traffic and congestion affecting the movement of both passengers and goods.
Vaishnaw attributed the pressure on the network partly to increased coal and other freight movement. “We are currently experiencing a period of peak congestion. There is a peak in the movement of coal and other goods,” he said. The minister said Indian Railways had laid 36,000 kilometres of additional tracks over the past 10 years and argued that further track construction was necessary for a permanent increase in capacity.
The announcement comes as the Railways manages heightened demand during Durga Puja, Diwali and Chhath. It has deployed 18,000 special trains during the current festive period, compared with 12,000 during the corresponding period last year. The minister also said that around 75,000 special trains had operated during the previous financial year, with the number expected to cross 80,000 in the current financial year.
Several measures have been introduced at stations to handle passenger volumes. Around 700 AI-enabled cameras have been installed, while holding areas have been established at approximately 20 stations. Ticket counters have been shifted to some of these areas, and additional scanning counters have been added to reduce queues and manage entry into station premises.
In Delhi, special trains have been stationed at Shakur Basti, Nizamuddin, Anand Vihar, Anand Vihar Terminal and locations near New Delhi railway station. Vaishnaw said passenger traffic at railway stations had returned to normal on Chhoti Diwali and that the Railways intended to maintain the arrangements throughout the festive travel period. The long-term corridor expansion and the additional regular services remain dependent on completion of the four-lining projects.
