Decongesting Railways to Unlock India’s Freight Potential

Syllabus: GS3/Infrastructure, Transport and Logistics

Context

• Indian Railways is seeking to increase its freight-carrying capacity by decongesting High Density Networks (HDNs) through multitracking and accelerating the development of additional Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFCs).

Importance of Freight Transportation

• Freight earnings contribute over 65% of Indian Railways’ total earnings, helping subsidise passenger services.
• Railways accounted for around 27% of India’s freight transport and carried 1,670 million tonnes of freight in 2025–26.
• Rail freight is relatively cheaper and has lower emissions than road transport, but network congestion and weak last-mile connectivity limit its competitiveness.
• Indian Railways aims to increase freight loading to 3,000 million tonnes by 2030.

About High-Density Networks (HDNs)

• HDNs are heavily utilised passenger-freight routes where train movements frequently approach or exceed the designed line capacity.
• The 11,051 km HDN constitutes only about 16% of the railway network but carries more than 40% of total railway traffic, making it critical to the functioning of the network.
• The seven major HDNs connect Howrah–Delhi, Howrah–Mumbai, Mumbai–Delhi, Delhi–Guwahati, Delhi–Chennai, Howrah–Chennai and Mumbai–Chennai.
• A network utilisation level of around 70–80% is considered desirable for smooth train operations.
  • However, only 4.6% of the HDN operates below 80% capacity, while substantial portions operate at 100–120%, 120–150% and above 150% of capacity.
  • Congestion particularly affects freight trains, contributing to the relatively low average freight-train speed of around 25 kmph.

Multitracking for Capacity Augmentation

• Multitracking involves adding additional railway lines on heavily utilised routes so that passenger and freight services can operate with greater flexibility.
• The Railways is seeking to four-line the seven HDNs, with the objective of converting overloaded routes into routes with adequate spare capacity.
• Significance: 
  • Additional lines can reduce conflicts between passenger and freight services and thereby reduce transit delays.
  • Shorter transit times can also reduce wastage, deterioration and handling-related losses in goods movement.
  • According to the Ministry of Railways, the approximate transportation cost is ₹1.60 per tonne-km by rail compared with ₹3.60 per tonne-km by road, indicating the potential for shifting more freight towards rail.

Dedicated Freight Corridors

• Dedicated Freight Corridors are specialised railway routes designed primarily for freight trains, allowing goods traffic to move without competing directly with passenger services for capacity.
  • They may run parallel to existing railway routes or take alternative alignments to bypass congested passenger terminals and sections.
• Eastern and Western DFCs: Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) is from Ludhiana to Sonnagar and the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC) is from Jawaharlal Nehru Port Terminal (JNPT) to Dadri.

What are the challenges?

• Inadequate last-mile connectivity increases handling time and costs, particularly when railway terminals are not directly connected to industrial clusters, ports, mines and consumption centres.
• Congested terminals and loading facilities can offset the time savings achieved through faster movement on the main railway network.
• Dependence on bulk commodities such as coal limits the diversification of railway freight towards containers, automobiles, agricultural produce and other higher-value goods.

Conclusion

• Expanding freight capacity is only the first step; its real economic value will depend on how efficiently the expanded network is integrated with the wider logistics system. 
• A stronger rail freight network can help India achieve lower logistics costs, more reliable supply chains and a greater shift towards sustainable freight transportation.

Source: IE