Indian Railways to invest $18bn over 5 years

Indian Railways has revealed plans to invest $ 18 billion (Rs 1,60,000 crore) in the next five years from 2012 to 2017.

The significant sum will be spent buying rolling stock in a view to increase passengers and freight revenue.

From April to July this year, India Railways earned $7.5 billion (Rs 33134.31 crore) in comparison to $6.3 billion (Rs. 29618.70 crore) during the same period last year, registering an increase of 11.87%.

A senior railway official said: “The development of dedicated freight corridors on the eastern and western region will help us increase our share in the transport of goods in the country from 35 – 50% by 2020, but for that we will need more rolling stock to run on these routes.”

Under the rolling stock procurement plan Indian Railways will purchase wagons to carry more freight.

Dedicated freight corridors will be developed by 2016-17 and will cover the distance of more than 3,322 km passing through eight states, four more corridors will be added in the later stages.

Indian Railways also have plans to increase its network by 25,000 km by 2020, meaning these new rail networks will need 60% more rolling stock.

According to an estimate, demand for diesel locomotives will shoot up to 4,644 between 2012-13 and 2019-20, while demand for electric engines will rise to 3,726.

Indian Railways also has plans to buy 1000 diesel locomotives.

GE Transportation, Alstom, EMD and BEML have submitted bids to win the contract.