National Rail Plan- Highlights

The Union Railway Minister, Piyush Goyal, announced on March 10, 2021 that the Indian Railways has prepared a National Rail Plan (NRP) in order to establish a future ready Railway system by the year 2030.

National Rail Plan (NRP)

The Union Railway Minister highlighted that; the National Rail Plan has been prepared with the aim of formulating the strategies on the basis of both operational capacities as well as the commercial policy initiatives. The step was taken so as to increase the modal share of Railways to 45 percent in freight. The plan also seeks to create the capacity ahead of the demand in the country. It will also cater to the future growth in demand up to the year 2050 and also increase the modal share of Railways to 45 percent in freight traffic.

Key highlights

The railway minister also stated in a written reply to the lower house that the urban transportation is an integral part of urban development and is state subject. So, the concerned state is responsible to initiate and develop the urban transport infrastructure such as metro rail projects or MetroLite or MetroNeo in the urban agglomerates. He also stated that, several Business Development Units (BDUs) have been set up in order to attract new business by providing value-for-money solutions for logistics. He replied that, the Indian railways is undertaking the “Public-Private Partnership (PPP) approach for the Passenger Train Operations in order to enhance the overall service quality and operational efficiency.

Business Development Units

Such Units have been created in all the zones of Indian Railways in a bid to attract new traffic and increase the rail share for the existing stream of traffic. BDUs will be interacting with industries and will facilitate those industries in carrying consignments by rail.

Function of BDUs

The main functions of the BDUs include:

1. Increasing the present rail share of railways in traditional bulk commodity movement.
2. Attracting new non-bulk traffic from local industries into rail mode.

Month: Current Affairs - March, 2021