Overview

Having Passed through various phases since its introduction on April 16, 1853, railways in India entered a new era in 1947 when the country attained Independence. The country inherited a shattered railway system which had become the brunt of the Depression of the 1930s and the on slaught of World war II which, though it filled the railway coffers due to the demand for its services, left a major part of its assets obsolete, overused and requiring replacement. Further, the partition of the country had led to division of assets and manpower and dislocated the railway services. Nearly 83,000 railway workers opted to serve in Pakistan while 126,000 stayed on in India. The division led to the problem of fitting them into their proper places. After Partition, nearly 53,500 route kilometers remained in India.
In the wake of Partition, the railways transport a large number of from India to Pakistan and vice versa- During the first month after Independence, despite great operational and other handicaps, it transported nearly 7,00,000 migrants and another 40,00,000 migrants during the following Year. This feat has no parallel in the annals of world railways. After partition, the pattern and direction of rail traffic underwent a sea change, particularly in northern, western and northeastern parts had no link to with the rest of the country. The Assam Railway in the northeastern parts had no link with the rest of the country. Work on the 227 kilometer long Assam Rail line project was started in January 1948 and the fine was completed and formally inaugurated on January 26, 1950.

The loss of the port of Karachi and Lahore, an important centre of trade, jeopardized the traffic from Jammu and Kashmir through Pathankot which had to be diverted to Bombay via Delhi. It necessitated immediate construction of Pathankot - Mukerian railway line to connect Pathankot with Delhi. The work on the 44 km long Pathankot - Mukerian line began in November 1949 and it was formally opened to traffic on April 7, 1952.

The diversion of traffic put severe pressure on the Delhi-Bombay route and also on the port of Bombay. It necessitated the development of another port on the west coast of the country and the obvious choice was Kandla in the Kutch region. Work on the meter gauge line connecting Kandla and Deesa started in January 1950 and the 274 km long line was opened to traffic in October 1952.

Growth of Assets

Route Kilometers

The Indian Railways has three gauges: broad gauge (1.676 meter), meters gauge (1 metre) and narrow gauge (0.762 and 0.610 metre). In 1950-51, the combined route kilometres of these gauges were  53,597. In 1995-96 the route length rose to 62,915 km showing a total increase of 9,336 m which represents an increase of 17.42 per cent and an average annual increase of 0.38 percent which was the highest in the Sixth Plan (2.9 per cent), followed by the First Plan (1.3 per cent).

Electrified route kilometers

Electrification in the Indian Railways started in 1925, but remained confined mostly to suburban traffic. Till 1955-56, the electrified route kilometers was just 388 which increased to 748 by 1960-61, registering an increase of 92.7 percent at an average growth of 18.5 per cent per year. The average annual growth ate till 1995-96 was 388. The electrified route length was 0.72 per cent of the total route length in 1950-51 which went up to 19.5 per cent in 1995-96.

Gauge-wise breakup of total route kilometers

Out of the three gauges, the broad gauge predominates with 25,292 km. It constituted 47.13 percent of the total route kms in 1951. Over the years, it has been increasing and in 1996 it was 40,620 km, (25,556 km single line and 15,064 km double/multiple line) forming 64.5 per cent of the total route km of 62,915. With a route length of 24,185 km, the metre gauge accounted from 45.12 per cent of the total route km in 1950-51. It increased to 25,865 km in 1970-71. Thereafter, mainly due to conversion of metre gauge routes to broad gauge routes, it declined to 18,501 km (18,408 km single line and 93 km double/multiple line) in 1995-96 and constituted 29.4 per cent of the total route kms.

Gauge conversion

The conversion of metre and narrow gauges into broad gauge has been an ongoing programme. However, in 1970-71, it was decided not to construct any more metre and narrow gauge railway lines. It was also decided to convert the railway lines of these gauges into broad gauge so as to have a uniform broad gauge in the country.

Railway stations

In 1950-55, the number of railway stations in the country was 5,976 which gradually rose to 7,068 in 1995-96.

Locomotives

Steam locomotives

In 1950-51 there were 8,120 steam locomotives which gradually increased to 10,810 in 1963-64. Since it was decided to phase out the steam locos, their number started declining from 1964 onwards. In 1995-96, the Indian Railways had only 209 steam locos in operation.

Diesel locomotives

The number of diesel locos in 1950-51/1951-52 was 17 which went up to 28, and finally 45 at the end of the First Plan. Since then the number has been continuously rising and increased to 1,069 during the first year of the Fourth Plan. With rapid phasing out of steam locos, the number of diesel locos rose to 4,313 in 1995-96.

Electric locomotives

In 1950-51, the number of electric locos was 72 and these wee mostly employed on suburban traffic routes. This number reached the four-figure mark in 1980-81 and finally shot to 2,387 in 1995-96.

Coach Stock

Passenger Coaches

In 1950-51, the number of passenger coaches was 13,022 which increased to 29,734 in 1995-96.

Wagons
The number of wagons in the railways has been varying from time to time due to replacements or repairs In 1950-51, their number was 2,05,596 and in 1995-96 it was 2,80,791.

EMU coaches

In 1950-51, the number of EMU coaches was just 460. With the rising demand of suburban traffic their number has been increasing steadily and it was at 3,692 in 1995-96.

Manpower

Indian Railways had a regular staff of 9.14 lakh in 1950-51 which increased to 16.54 lakh in 1991-92. Thereafter, the number declined to 15.86 lakh in the year 1995-96. In 1995-96, the number of daily wage worker was nearly 57,000. In 1950-51, the average yearly wage per employee was Rs 1,263 which increased to Rs 59,219 in 1995-96.

The Indian Railways has 19 recruitment boards in the country. It training units are: Railway Staff College, Vadodara; Indian Railway Institute of Civil Engineering, Pune; Indian Railway Institute of Signal Engineering and Telecommunications, Secundarabad; Indian Railway Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Jamalpur and Indian Railway Institute of Electric Engineering, Nasik.

Growth of Traffic

Freight traffic

In 1950-51, the freight traffic on railways was 93 million tonnes originating, of which the revenue-earning traffic was 73.2 million tonnes originating. Since then, both the total traffic and the revenue-earning traffic have been showing an upward trend though not consistently and have increased to 405.5 and 390.7 million tonnes originating respectively in 1995-96 with an annual average growth rate of 5.38 and 6.39 per cent respectively. The increase in revenue-earning traffic in recent years, particularly during the last five years, has been largely the result of reduction in the volume of non revenue-earning traffic.

Passenger traffic (suburban)

At the beginning of the First Five-Year Plan, suburban passenger traffic on the Indian Railways was 412 million passengers originating. The suburban traffic over the yeas rose steadily and reached the figure of 2,430 and 2,484 million passengers in 1994-95 and 1995-96 respectively; the annual rate of increase in 1995-96 was 2.2 per cent over the figure for 1994-95.

Passenger traffic (non-suburban)

From 1951-52 to 1953-54, the non-suburban passenger traffic witnessed a decline from 872 to 753 million passengers originating with an average decline of 3.69 per cent annually. The traffic resumed upward movement during the first two years of the Sixth Plan with an annual growth rate of 0.68 and 1.67 per cent. Incidentally, the 1,640 million passengers originating in 1981-83 was the highest ever. Since then, the number has witnessed wide fluctuations, declining by 8.30 per cent in 1983-84 and further by 2.8 per cent in 1984-85. Traffic increased by 6.9 per cent in 1985-86, and reached 1,485 million in 1994-95. It rose to 1,533 million passengers originating in 1995-96.

Freight Traffic trends and analysis

Freight traffic carried in Financial Year 1997-98 was 430 million tons, which is 5.5 % up over the previous year. An annual growth rate of 5 percent has been assumed for the Ninth Five year plan period. (Source: Government of India)

With reference to the Fig.1 we can say that the Indian Railways freight traffic volumes have increased over the years but the railway s share of the total freight movement has reduced drastically.

Fig.1
(Source: Indian infrastructure report)

Railways freight traffic has come down from 89% in 1951 to 40% in 1995 with respect to the total freight traffic as can be seen in Fig.1.

The main reason for this can be attributed to the fact that road sector has experienced booming growth, fast mode of transportation for short distances, can go for Door to Door Services and has been gradually eating out the rail freight traffic.

Future Outlook Of The Industry 

Despite a loss in terms of market share to the road industry, a growth rate of 5% is being assumed for the Ninth Plan period for railways and even higher growth rates will have to be achieved in the Tenth and Eleventh Plan in order to reverse the trends in modal split.