High-speed rail

Main article: MumbaiAhmedabad high-speed rail corridor

Feasibility studies for five high-speed rail corridors were conducted in 2009-10. A "Diamond
Quadrilateral" has been planned to connect Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai with a highspeed train network.[2] The Indian government conducted joint surveys with a Japanese
government team in 2014, finally approving a corridor between Mumbai and Ahmedabad.
The new high-speed service will utilise a Japanese Shinkansen system and locomotives, at a
cost in the range of 110,000 crore (US$16 billion). India and Japan signed agreements for
the project in December 2015; the Japanese government will fund 81% of the total cost with a
soft loan fixed at a nominal interest rate.[3] A special committee has recommended the trains
be run on an elevated corridor for an additional cost of 10,000 crore (US$1 billion) to avoid
the difficulties of acquiring land and building underpasses and protective fencing.[4] Indian
Railways will operate the corridor for a five-year period after its commissioning, after which
it will be turned over to a private operator.[5]
Construction is scheduled to begin in 2017 and be completed by 2023.[6]

Semi-high speed rail

A semi-high-speed rail network will be introduced for certain important routes, including the
following: Delhi-Agra, Delhi-Kanpur, Chennai-Hyderabad, Nagpur-Secunderabad and
Mumbai-Goa. Initially, the trains will operate at a maximum speed of 160 km/h, which will
increase to 200 km/h after the rails are strengthened and fenced off. The first route to open,
the Gatimaan Express, began services from 5 April 2016 after safety clearances were
obtained.[2][7]

Locomotive factories
In 2015, plans were disclosed for building two locomotive factories in the state of Bihar, at
Madhepura (diesel locomotives) and at Marhowra (electric locomotives). Both factories
involve foreign partnerships. The diesel locomotive works will be jointly operated in a
partnership with General Electric, which has invested 2,052 crore (US$305 million) for its
construction, and the electric locomotive works with Alstom, which has invested 1,293.57
crore (US$192 million). The factories will provide Indian Railways with 800 electric
locomotives of 12,000 horse power each, and a mix of 1,000 diesel locomotives of 4,500 and
6,000 horsepower each.[8] In November 2015, it was announced Indian Railways and GE
would engage in an 11-year joint venture in which GE would hold a majority stake of 74%.
Indian Railways would purchase 100 goods locomotives a year for 10 years beginning in
2017; the locomotives would be modified versions of the GE Evolution series.[9] The diesel
locomotive works will be built by 2018; GE will import the first 100 locomotives and
manufacture the remaining 900 in India from 2019, also assuming responsibility for their
maintenance over a 13-year period.[10] In the same month, a 20,000 crore (US$3 billion)
partnership with Alstom to supply 800 electric locomotives from 2018 to 2028 was
announced.[1]

Improvements to rolling stock

Bio-toilets
In 2014, Indian Railways and DRDO developed a bio-toilet to replace direct-discharge
toilets, which are currently the primary type of toilet used in railway coaches. The direct
discharge of human waste from trains onto the tracks corrodes rails, costing Indian Railways
tens of millions of rupees a year in rail-replacement work. Flushing a bio-toilet discharges
human waste into an underfloor holding tank where anaerobic bacteria remove harmful
pathogens and break the waste down into neutral water and methane., which can then be
harmlessly discharged onto the tracks.[11] Indian Railways plans to completely phase out
direct-discharge toilets by 2020-2021. All new coaches will be installed with bio-toilets from
2016, with older rolling stock to be gradually retrofitted.

Passenger infrastructure and services

Wi-fi at stations
In September 2015, the Indian Railways and Google announced a joint initiative to deliver
high-speed wi-fi access across 400 major railway stations. The first 100 stations will be
connected to the network by the end of 2016, with Mumbai Central station the first to be
connected.[12] The Railtel-Google free high-speed public WiFi service is currently available at
Mumbai Central, Pune, Bhubaneshwar, Bhopal, Ranchi, Raipur, Vijayawada, Kacheguda,
Ernakulum Junction, Vishakhapatnam, Jaipur, Kanpur, Lucknow, Gorakhpur, Patna,
Guwahati, Ujjain, sealdah and Allahabad.[13]

Rail infrastructure
Expansion of trackage electrification
In November 2016, the Indian Railways launched "Mission Electrification," a programme
intended to electrify 90 percent, or roughly 52,000 km of the network's trackage, by 2020.
28,000 km of trackage had been electrified by 2016, equal to about 42 percent of the Indian
Railways' total trackage; this equates to about 50 percent electrification for passenger lines
and about 67 percent for goods lines. The programme is estimated to save the network
roughly 10,000 crore (US$1 billion) annually by 2020.[14]