{"id":85009,"date":"2026-09-17T18:18:46","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T12:48:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=85009"},"modified":"2026-09-17T18:19:31","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T12:49:31","slug":"decongesting-railways-india-freight-potential","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/17-09-2026\/decongesting-railways-india-freight-potential","title":{"rendered":"Decongesting Railways to Unlock India\u2019s Freight Potential"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS3\/Infrastructure, Transport and Logistics<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>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).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Importance of Freight Transportation<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Freight earnings contribute over <strong>65% <\/strong>of Indian Railways\u2019 total earnings, helping subsidise passenger services.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Railways<\/strong> accounted for around <strong>27% of India\u2019s freight transport<\/strong> and carried <strong>1,670 million tonnes<\/strong> of freight in <strong>2025\u201326.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Rail freight is relatively <strong>cheaper and has lower emissions<\/strong> than road transport, but network congestion and weak last-mile connectivity limit its competitiveness.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Indian Railways aims to increase freight loading to <strong>3,000 million tonnes by 2030.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>About High-Density Networks (HDNs)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>HDNs are <strong>heavily utilised passenger-freight routes<\/strong> where train movements frequently approach or exceed the designed line capacity.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The <strong>11,051 km HDN<\/strong> constitutes only about <strong>16%<\/strong> of the railway network but carries more than<strong> 40%<\/strong> of total railway traffic, making it critical to the functioning of the network.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>The seven major HDNs <\/strong>connect Howrah\u2013Delhi, Howrah\u2013Mumbai, Mumbai\u2013Delhi, Delhi\u2013Guwahati, Delhi\u2013Chennai, Howrah\u2013Chennai and Mumbai\u2013Chennai.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>A network utilisation level<\/strong> of around <strong>70\u201380%<\/strong> is considered <strong>desirable for smooth train operations.<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>However, only <strong>4.6%<\/strong> of the HDN operates below 80% capacity, while substantial portions operate at <strong>100\u2013120%, 120\u2013150% and above 150%<\/strong> of capacity.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Congestion particularly affects freight trains, contributing to the relatively low average freight-train speed of around <strong>25 kmph.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Multitracking for Capacity Augmentation<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Multitracking involves <strong>adding additional railway lines <\/strong>on heavily utilised routes so that passenger and freight services can operate with greater flexibility.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Railways is <strong>seeking to four-line<\/strong> the seven HDNs, with the objective of converting overloaded routes into routes with adequate spare capacity.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Significance:\u00a0<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Additional lines can<strong> reduce conflicts between passenger and freight <\/strong>services and thereby reduce transit delays.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Shorter transit times can also reduce wastage, deterioration and handling-related losses in goods movement.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>According to the Ministry of Railways, the approximate transportation cost is \u20b91.60 per tonne-km by rail compared with \u20b93.60 per tonne-km by road, indicating the potential for shifting more freight towards rail.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Dedicated Freight Corridors<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Dedicated Freight Corridors are <strong>specialised railway routes designed primarily for freight trains,<\/strong> allowing goods traffic to move without competing directly with passenger services for capacity.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>They may <strong>run parallel to existing railway routes <\/strong>or take <strong>alternative alignments<\/strong> to bypass congested passenger terminals and sections.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Eastern and Western DFCs: <\/strong>Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) is from <strong>Ludhiana to Sonnagar<\/strong> and the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC) is from <strong>Jawaharlal Nehru Port Terminal (JNPT) to Dadri.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img data-dominant-color=\"d4d7da\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #d4d7da;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"630\" height=\"891\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-127.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"not-transparent wp-image-85010\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-127.png 630w, https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-127-212x300.png 212w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What are the challenges?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Inadequate last-mile connectivity<\/strong> increases handling time and costs, particularly when railway terminals are not directly connected to industrial clusters, ports, mines and consumption centres.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Congested terminals and loading facilities<\/strong> can offset the time savings achieved through faster movement on the main railway network.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Dependence on bulk commodities<\/strong> such as coal limits the diversification of railway freight towards containers, automobiles, agricultural produce and other higher-value goods.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>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.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A stronger rail freight network can help India achieve lower logistics costs, more reliable supply chains and a greater shift towards sustainable freight transportation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-economics\/indian-railways-high-density-network-freight-corridors-10877969\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>IE<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\n<strong> <\/p>\n<p>Context<\/p>\n<p> <\/strong>\n<\/p>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">\n<p>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).<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>\n<strong> <\/p>\n<p>Importance of Freight Transportationnd<\/p>\n<p><\/strong>\n<\/p>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">\n<p>Freight earnings contribute over 65% of Indian Railways\u2019 total earnings, helping subsidise passenger services.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">\n<p>Railways accounted for around 27% of India\u2019s freight transport and carried 1,670 million tonnes of freight in 2025\u201326.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<p><a href=\" https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/17-09-2026\/decongesting-railways-india-freight-potential   \u201c class=\"btn btn-primary btn-sm float-end\">Read More<\/a>\u00cf<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85009"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85012,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85009\/revisions\/85012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}