By Anil Kumar Saxena
Investment by Indian Railways in infrastructure development will not only enable faster movement of passengers and goods across the country but also lead to higher consumption of several commdoites includes steel, iron, cement and metals.

Over the past few years, Indian Railways has been marching in tune with the requirements of the national economy and it has bettered the targets it set for itself in the process. Indian Railways have emerged as one of the major movers of economy as its plan size in the year 2007-08 has gone upto Rs. 37,500 crore from a plan size of Rs. 10,177 crore in the year 2000-01, it has shown tremendous financial performance by achieving a cash surplus of Rs. 25,000 crore in 2007-08 as against a meagre cash surplus of Rs. 350 crore in 2000-01, it has improved its operating ratio to 76 per cent in 2007-08 from 98 per cent in 2000-01 and increased freight loading to 795 MT in 2007-08 from 473 MT in 2000-01.

In the current year, Indian Railways have drawn up plans towards the increased upgradation of rail infrastructure and procurement of new assets of rolling stock during the current financial year with an estimated expenditure of Rs. 37,500 Crore (approx.) to shore up the infrastructural development and upkeep. While the massive investment by the Indian Railways will strengthen Railways, it will also kick start rapid economic activity and growth in different core sectors of Indian economy.

The strategy in current year includes massive track and sleeper renewal activity leading to increased steel consumption, production of more steel bridge girders, more production of Coaches, more production of diesel and electrical locos, more production of wheels & axles, development of model stations and world class stations, installation of modern and upgraded signalling system, increased route electrification and improvement in telecommunication work. Indian Railways is also undertaking the construction of dedicated freight corridor, the biggest infrastructural development activity of Indian Railways since independence, towards which an amount of Rs. 400 crore is being spent in 2008-09 and Rs. 3000 crore have been earmarked for 2009-10.

In case of cement the consumption over Indian Railways is likely to increase to 11.41 lakh MT in current financial year as against 5.88 lakh MT in 2000-01 and a total consumption of cement over Indian Railways is likely to be 15.90 lakh MT in current year as compared to 7.75 lakh MT in 2000-01.

Some of the Railway projects under execution are described below:

For the track development, the railways are targeting the rail renewal of over 2,941 km, for which it will require about 3,39,288 million tonne (MT) of rail steel. This will help IR renew its infrastructure assets on age-cum-condition basis and upgrade the infrastructure for the increased axle loads.

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