Railways earned Rs.2,56,093cr 2023-24
India has emerged as a global leader in railway locomotive manufacturing, achieving a record production of 1,681 locomotives in the financial year 2024-25, surpassing the total locomotive production of regions such as the United States, Europe, South America, Africa and Australia.
“This marks an increase of 209 locomotives, or 19%, compared to the 1,472 locomotives produced in the previous financial year 2023-24. This record production reaffirms India’s growing dominance in the global railway sector,” the Ministry of Railways said on 2 Apr.
The continuous rise in locomotive production is a direct result of strategic decisions taken to strengthen the “Make in India” initiative siemens.
The 2024-25 production was distributed as follows: Chittaranjan Locomotive Works manufactured 700 locomotives, Banaras Locomotive Works produced 477, Patiala Locomotive Works contributed 304 locomotives and 100 locomotives each were manufactured at the Madhepura and Marhowrah units http://alstom.com .
The majority of the locomotives produced in the country were intended for freight trains.
These are:
WAG-9/9H locomotives: 1,047;
WAG-9HH locomotives: 7;
WAG-9 Twin locomotives: 148;
WAP-5 locomotives: 2;
WAP-7 locomotives: 272;
NRC locomotives: 5;
WAG-12B locomotives: 100;
WDG 4G/6G locomotives: 100.
Overall, IR has achieved a significant milestone in the financial year 2024-25 by manufacturing 7,134 coaches, marking a 9% increase from the previous year’s production of 6,541 coaches, with special emphasis on non A/C coaches with production of 4,601 coaches, catering the needs of common man. This rise reflects India’s growing emphasis on modernizing Railway infrastructure to meet increasing passenger demand.
The IR has three coach manufacturing units in the country – Integral Coach Factory (ICF) at Chennai, Tamil Nadu, Rail Coach Factory (RCF) at Kapurthala, Punjab and Modern Coach Factory (MCF) at Rae Bareli, Uttar Pradesh. The Integral Coach Factory (ICF), the premier passenger coach producing unit of Indian Railways in Chennai, surpassed its previous production records for the year 2024-25, as it rolled out 3,007 coaches.
Meanwhile, the Indian Railways (IR) reported earnings of Rs.256,093 crore and revenue expenditure of Rs.2,52,834 crore in 2023-24. The net Revenue has improved to Rs.3,260 crore in 2023-24, Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw told Lok Sabha on 2 Apr.
Due to implementation of several freight revenue initiatives, the freight carried by IR during 2020-21 was 1,233 million tonnes which increased to 1,591 million tonnes during 2023-24 i.e. a growth of 29%. IR is set to achieve 1.6 billion tonnes freight loading in the FY 2024-25 making it the third largest freight handling railway system in the world. Some of the important measures to improve the freight include-
Encouraging private sector to develop the modern rail freight terminals under ‘Gati Shakti Multi- Modal Cargo Terminal (GCT)’ policy and augmenting/ upgrading the infrastructure at railway owned goods sheds, the Ministry said.
Indian Railways is making all endeavors to promote solar energy in line with the Government policies to proliferate renewable energy, environmental sustainability and to achieve long-term financial savings. The transition to renewable energy is an ongoing process http://isolaralliance.org.
So far, about 209 MW of solar plants on 2,249 Railway stations and service buildings across the country have been installed. Fiinews.com
