The Minister of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu has outlined four goals for Indian Railways to transform it over the next five years. These goals are:

a) To deliver a sustained and measurable improvement in customer experience, the Indian Railways is launching initiatives that will systematically address customer concerns about cleanliness, comfort, accessibility, service quality and speed of trains.

b) To make Rail a safer means of travel.

c) To expand Bhartiya Rail’s capacity substantially and to modernise infrastructure. Given the importance of rail travel for the citizens, Indian Railways will increase daily passenger carrying capacity from 21million to 30 million. It will also increase track length by 20% from 1,14,000 km to 1,38,000 km, and will grow its annual freight carrying capacity from 1 billion to 1.5 billion tonnes. And

d) To make Bhartiya Rail financially self-sustainable, the Indian Railways will generate large surpluses from its operations not only to service the debt needed to fund capacity expansion, but also to invest on an on-going basis to replace its depreciating assets. This will require material improvement in operating efficiency, tighter control over costs, greater discipline over project selection and execution, and a significant boost to Railways’ revenue generating capacity.

Presenting the Railway Budget 2015-16 in Parliament today the Minister said, these goals will also ensure that Railways is an integral part of all the flagship programmes that our Prime Minister has launched for improving the quality of life of the downtrodden, from ‘Swachh Bharat’ to Make in India, and from ‘Digital India’ to ‘Skill India’.

Rail capacity expansion prioritised alongside safety, customer experience and financial self-sustainability in five-year transformation plan Four policy goals frame a five-year transformation: measurable improvement in customer experience, prioritised rail safety, substantial capacity expansion and infrastructure modernisation, and achievement of financial self-sustainability through improved operating efficiency, cost control, disciplined project selection and enhanced revenue generation.