Indian Railways has approved five new reforms under its ongoing ‘Reform Express’ initiative, taking the total count for 2026 to nine. Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced the additions on Tuesday, covering two freight-related changes, one construction reform, and two measures aimed at passenger convenience.
The reforms are part of the Railways’ stated goal of pushing through 52 systemic changes over 52 weeks this year, a target the ministry set at the start of January. Four reforms had already been notified earlier in the year, including changes to on-board cleaning services, the Gati Shakti Cargo Terminal policy, a new Rail Tech portal, and the digitisation of the Railway Claims Tribunal.
Salt and automobiles: Going after freight share
Two of the five new reforms take aim at freight segments where railways currently hold a smaller share than they could.
On salt, Railways moves around 9.2 million tonnes per year, out of India’s annual production of roughly 35 million tonnes, primarily out of Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Tamil Nadu. Rail already carries about 65% of salt meant for human consumption, but holds only around a quarter of the industrial salt market.
To push that number up, the ministry has developed a stainless steel container that loads from the top and discharges from the side using a hydraulic mechanism. The design addresses longstanding complaints from producers: existing open wagons let water seep in under tarpaulin covers, salt corrodes the wagon material, and multiple handling stages add cost and wastage. The new containers can be placed directly at salt farms for loading and moved to warehouses at the destination, reducing intermediate handling significantly, as per the PIB release.
The automobile sector tells a similar story. India produces about 31 million vehicles a year, of which roughly 5 million are passenger cars. Railways account for around 24% of passenger vehicle movement.
The problem, the ministry found after consulting manufacturers, was that existing wagon designs were either single-stack or double-stack with no flexibility, and several routes carrying constraints on tunnel and bridge clearances ruled out certain wagon types entirely. The new policy allows manufacturers to design wagons specifically for their origin-to-destination routes, giving them the ability to build for higher capacity where the route permits it.
To illustrate the kind of impact it expects, the ministry pointed to a bulk cement policy change from late 2025; tonnage transported on that front rose from around 37,000 tonnes in September 2025 to close to 95,000 tonnes by January 2026.
Construction reform: Tightening who can build what
The seventh reform tightens the rules around who can bid for railway infrastructure projects and how those projects are executed.
Seven specific changes have been made. The threshold for evaluating a contractor’s track record through a single project rises from 35% to 50% of the project value, ensuring only firms with relevant scale can bid.
As per the PIB release, at least 20% of a contractor’s prior experience must now be in railway-specific work, with the ministry noting that different sectors, such as highways, ports, and airports, carry distinct complexities that don’t always translate. Within railway works, the ministry has tiered complexity levels, with signalling at the top, followed by overhead electrical systems and track work.
Bid security has been fixed at 2% of project value, meant to deter non-serious participants from clogging the tendering process. Projects above Rs 10 crore will require a formal bid capacity assessment. Contractors will also need to submit a detailed work plan before work begins.
The subcontracting limit has been cut from 70% to 40%, meaning contractors now have to directly execute at least 60% of any project themselves. And if a bid comes in more than 5% below the estimated cost, the bidder will be required to deposit an additional 5% performance guarantee.
For passengers: Simpler cancellations, later boarding changes
The two passenger-facing reforms address ticketing flexibility, a space that has seen significant intervention over the past year after Railways identified and removed nearly 3 crore fake accounts from the IRCTC system as part of a crackdown on bots and ticket touts.
On cancellations, the time windows have been revised to 72, 24, and 8 hours before departure, up from the earlier 48, 12, and 4 hours, in line with the decision to prepare reservation charts 9 to 18 hours before departure, rather than the earlier practice of 4 hours.
Counter tickets can now be cancelled from any station in the country, removing the old restriction that tied cancellations to the originating station. For e-tickets, the requirement to file a Ticket Deposit Receipt has been dropped; refunds will now be processed automatically upon cancellation.
The upgrade window for travel class has also been extended; passengers can now move to a higher class up to 30 minutes before departure, compared to the earlier cut-off of chart preparation time.
The fifth reform allows passengers to change their boarding station digitally up to 30 minutes before the train departs from its origin. Earlier, the boarding point could only be changed before chart preparation. Under the new provision, a passenger who can’t make it to the original station can switch to the next convenient stop without losing the confirmed berth.