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Two officials aware of the development said the 100 per cent electrification plan is now likely to be completed only by the end of the current fiscal year or early next year as final stage projects are progressing at a slow pace this year.
The latest plan of the railways was to complete the entire electrification in the first 100 days of the new government. This meant that all the work should have been completed by September.
Hard Stretch
One of the two people quoted above said the challenges are mainly coming in the implementation of electrification in the Northeast, particularly Assam and Tripura, where only 50% of the broad gauge lines have been electrified by the end of August and work on 1,280 km of route is yet to be completed.
Besides, 892 route km (RKM) of the network in six states — Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, West Bengal, Goa and Rajasthan — are also facing delays in completion of electrification work.
Only about 688 km of network has been electrified in five months of the current fiscal, while the railways added just 4,000 RKM in FY24, and at this pace the completion will be delayed further, the second person said.
Electrification of railways’ broad gauge lines has grown rapidly in the last few years and has reached 96.68% by the end of August, covering about 64,144 RKM, with about 2,199 RKM remaining.
The railways had intended to complete the full electrification of its broad gauge lines by December 2023. Later, this deadline slipped to the end of the financial year 2023-24. Now it has been further extended as work is still underway on about 2,199 RKM of the railway network as of September 1, 2024 and as per previous data, it may take a few months to complete this final section.
Lagging behind in FY24
Like last year, the Railways has set a target of completing a record 6,500 route kilometres of electrification in FY 2024. But according to the Railway Ministry’s own report, only 4,644 route kilometres of the network could be electrified in the last financial year.
Route kilometre (RKM) is defined as the distance between two points on a railway, regardless of the number of lines connecting them: whether it is single line, double line or any other configuration.
According to the Railway Ministry, of the 32 states and union territories (for which estimates were available with the railways), electrification has reached 100% in 20, it is more than 90% in 5, and more than 80% in one. In 2 states and union territories, electrification work is either yet to start or has reached a level of about 50% (in Assam and Tripura). Electrification has not started in northeastern states like Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Mizoram and Manipur as of September 1. Electrification is also yet to be completed in Goa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Rajasthan and West Bengal.
The government provided One of the persons quoted above said that Rs 6,500 crore has been provisioned in the FY25 budget for electrification work, which also includes unspent funds from the previous year.
A query sent to the Railway Ministry could not be obtained till the time of writing the news.
Fuel saving
The electrification drive is expected to reduce the electrification expenditure of railways. Annual fuel bill of Rs 15,000 crore. It will also contribute to India’s goal of achieving net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2070. Additionally, Indian Railways envisions achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2030, and aims to become the largest green railway system globally.
Between 1948 and 2014, a total of about 22,000 RKM was electrified. The pace picked up since then, but the real pick-up came in FY18 when over 4,000 RKM was electrified for the first time. The pace picked up with electrification ranging between 4,000 RKM to 6,000 RKM continuously for four years till FY22. Thereafter, it increased to over 6,500 RKM in FY23 and again a target of 6,500 km was set in FY24. But this target was missed as only 4,644 RKM were added in FY24.
With 96.68% electrification, Indian Railways is way ahead of its global counterparts, with electrification reaching around 56% in the EU, 38% in the UK and just 1% in the US. Switzerland, however, is 99% electrified.
In addition, electrification of RKM is happening at the fastest pace in India, now exceeding 16 RKM per day. This is a significant increase from just 1.2 RKM per day between 2004 and 2009 and 1.7 RKM between 2009 and 2014.
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