Indian Railways is working towards four-tracking seven of the country’s high-density rail corridors covering nearly 11,000 km. Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the capacity expansion will reduce congestion, allow more trains to operate and enable faster journeys.
Explaining the plan in a video shared on X, Vaishnaw underlined how heavily these corridors are utilised. In the post, he summed up the passenger-facing benefits: “More tracks-less congestion-more trains-faster journey.”
41% of rail traffic on just 16% of network
As per Vaishnaw, the seven high-density routes together manage around 41% of India’s traffic total rail traffic despite accounting for only 16% of the railway network. “Railways has seven high-density routes. These seven high-density routes are around 11,000 kilometres,” the minister stated.
The high concentration of traffic is one of the key reasons Railways is considering raising track capacity across these corridors.
Which 7 high-density routes are covered?
The seven corridors interlink some of India’s biggest cities and regions, including Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai, Howrah and Guwahati.
The following are the high-density rail routes:
Delhi-Howrah
Howarah-Chennai
Chennai-Mumbai
Mumbai-Delhi
Delhi-Chennai
Mumbai-Howrah
Delhi-Guwahati
What is the current status of four-tracking?
Vaishnaw also showed a map in his video depicting the progress of four-tracking across the seven-high density routes.
The map uses three colours to showcase the status of different stretches. Blue denotes sections where four lines already exits. Red indicates approved sections or stretches that are in progress, whereas yellow highlights sections where Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) are under preparation or being evaluated for approval.
This means four-tracking is at different stages across the nearly 11,000 km network, rather than the entire network being under construction simultaneously.
What does four-tracking mean for passengers?
Adding tracks increases the capacity available for running passenger and freight trains on heavily used corridors. Vaishnaw has directly linked the programme to less congestion, more trains and faster journeys.
The minister also highlighted the economic and environmental case for increasing the share of transportation handled by Railways, especially for freight.
“If we have to reduce the cost of freight and also we need to make our transportation green as we grow in India, then we must make sure all these important corridors are quadrupled so that the capacity increases,” Vaishnaw stated.
Part of wider railway capacity push
The programme is also aimed at supporting increasing passenger and freight movement across the country.
Vaishnaw said Indian Railways is moving towards four-lanning the entire high-density network to raise capacity and support the growing movement of passengers and freight.
The four-tracking of these key corridors is part of a broader effort to create a railway network with greater capacity, lower transportation costs and cleaner mobility.
With some stretches already having four lines, construction is progressing on sanctioned sections and DPRs being prepared or under process. The plain is aimed at progressively expanding capacity across these seven high-density corridors.