The Indian Government is undertaking several initiatives to upgrade its railway infrastructure and enhance its quality of service. The Railway Ministry has announced plans to invest to upgrade the railways by 2030. Upgrades include 100% electrification of railways, upgrading existing lines with more facilities and higher speeds, expansion of new lines, upgrading railway stations, introducing and eventually developing a large high-speed train network interconnecting major cities in different parts of India and development of various dedicated freight corridors to cut down cargo costs within the country.

The Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) is undertaking all research, designs and standardisation work for modernisation, National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) is overlooking the implementation of high-speed train programs across the country, Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFCCI) is the agency undertaking development of freight corridors around the country and Indian Railway Stations Development Corporation (IRSDC) is engaged in railway stations upgrade and development programs.

Trains

Phased upgrades

India is gradually replacing traditional Mail, Express and Superfast trains with modern semi-high-speed (Vande Bharat) and high-speed (Bullet Train) trains, over 25 years by 2040 in the following phases which will need over ₹50–100 lakh crore for full modernization (per NITI Aayog) as highspeed track upgradation is slowing down the transition because as of 2025 60% of Indian Railways tracks are still not fit for speed over 130 kmph.Indian Railways Vision 2030, accessed Aug 2025.NITI Aayog’s Infrastructure Report (2024), accessed Aug 2025.

Phase 1 (2024–2030) – Semi-High-Speed Transition: target of over 400 Vande Bharat Express (160–180 kmph) trains (nearly 150 operational in August 2025) to replace Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Duronto, Tejas, and Antyodaya with Amrit Bharat coaches replacing LHB rakes.

Phase 2 (2030–2040) – High-Speed Rail (Bullet Trains): Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet Train (320 kmph) by 2030, Chennai-Bengaluru (320 kmph) next. Delhi NCR Regional Rapid Rail (RRTS, 180 kmph) by (2025), and then Pune-Nashik RRTS and Bengaluru-Mysuru RRTS by 2035. Most Mail/Express trains phased out and replaced by Vande Bharat/RRTS by 2035–2045.

Phase 3 (2035-2050) – Complete Overhaul: complete all Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFCs) to free up tracks for faster passenger trains, trial Hyperloop/MagLev and replace some premium routes by 2040+ with bullet trains dominating the key corridors such as Mumbai-Delhi, Bengaluru-Chennai, etc.

Semi-high-speed rail

Indian Railways have planned to introduce Vande Bharat trains in inner parts of India such as New Delhi-Kota, Ranchi-Sikkim,Ranchi-Puri, Raipur-Ranchi, Indore-Pune, Raipur-Varanasi, Pune-Goa, Goa-Mysore, Gokarna-Bangalore, Sikkim-Guwahati, Agartala-Guwahati, Indore-Lucknow to increase connectivity and economic development. Initially, the trains will operate at a maximum speed of 160 km/h, which will be increased to 200 km/h after the rails are strengthened and fenced off. The Gatimaan Express began services on April 5, 2016, after safety clearances were obtained on its first route. Currently, Vande Bharat Express is the fastest train running on 66 routes with highest trial speed of 183 km/h, with potential of reaching up to 200 km/h.

Mission Raftaar was announced in the Railway Budget of 2016-17 with the target of increasing the average speed of freight and superfast mail/express trains. The railway is focusing on the New Delhi-Mumbai and New Delhi-Howrah routes as part of the Golden Quadrilateral. Mission Raftar comprises several measures achieve its medium- and long-term, including the construction of tracks, bridges, rail flyovers, bypasses, right-powering of trains, third and fourth line construction, replacement of conventional loco-hauled trains by MEMUs, changes in timetable, and modification of the 1×25 KV traction system to the 2×25 KV traction system, among others. The country has made target of having 4,500 Vande Bharat trains running across India by 2047. Indian Railways will soon start the upgradation of tracks with high strength rails (R-350).The railways has started the work to increase the design speed limit of the next-generation Vande Bharat sleeper trains to 220 kmph and work has also started to improve the Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah lines to allow trains to run at 160 km/h.

Dedicated freight corridors(dfc)

Dedicated freight corridors of 3,300 km length will also be completed thus freeing the dual use high demand trunk routes for running more high-speed passenger trains. The project will continue to figure on the high priority list of all the government agencies associated with it. DFCs will help India reduce its high logistics costs from some 13-15 per cent of the GDP and help it move towards the target of 8 per cent.

Till date in the commissioned sections, a total of 4000 trains have been run. Some of the trains in the section are achieving the average speed of 99.38 kmph in EDFC and the average speed is 89.50 kmph in WDFC. Passenger train such as Vande Bharat Express have already ran on DFC tracks during exigencies.

High-speed rail

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 use a Japanese Shinkansen system and rolling stock. The cost of procuring the technology is estimated to be around . 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. A special committee has recommended the trains be run on an elevated corridor for an additional cost of , to avoid the difficulties of acquiring land, building underpasses and constructing protective fencing. Indian Railways will operate the corridor for a five-year period after its commissioning and afterwards will be turned over to a private operator.

Construction work of the corridor began in 2017 and will be completed by 2028. However, there is uncertainty in other routes as many of the routes have been junked as unfeasible.

Rolling stock Modern locomotive factories

In 2015, plans were disclosed for the construction of two locomotive factories with foreign partnerships in the state of Bihar, at Madhepura (electric) and at Marhowra (diesel). The diesel locomotive works will be jointly operated in a partnership with General Electric, which has invested for its construction and the electric locomotive works with Alstom, which has invested . The factories will provide IR with 800 electric locomotives of 12,000 horsepower and a mix of 1,000 diesel locomotives of 4,500 and 6,000 horsepower each. In November 2015, it was announced IR and GE would engage in an 11-year joint venture in which GE would hold a majority stake of 74%. IR would purchase 100 goods locomotives a year for 10 years, beginning in 2017; the locomotives would be modified versions of the GE Evolution series. 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 onwards, also assuming responsibility for their maintenance over a 13-year period. In the same month, a partnership with Alstom to supply 800 electric locomotives from 2018 to 2028 was announced.

Indian Railways is now moving to manufacturing high-end aluminium self-propelled 160 km/hour indigenous Make in India coaches that require no locomotive and are 10% cheaper than the comparable imports. The first such self-propelled train, Vande Bharat Express, was rolled out in October 2018. It is estimated to be 40% cheaper than foreign-built trains.

Railway coach refurbishment Railway coach refurbishment project aims for the refurbishment of 12 to 15 years old coaches at Carriage Rehabilitation Workshop in Bhopal to enhance passenger amenities and fire safety measures.

Bio-toilets in all trains In 2014, IR and DRDO developed a bio-toilet to replace direct-discharge toilets, which was the primary type of toilet used in railway coaches. Upgrade of all trains to bio-toilet was completed by the end of FY2018-19 (c. Dec 2017).

The direct discharge of human waste from trains onto the tracks corrodes rails, costing IR 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. IR plans to completely phase out direct-discharge toilets by 2020 or 2021. All-new coaches were installed in 2016, with older rolling stock to gradually becoming retrofitted. After Comptroller and Auditor General of India found 200,000 complaints related to the foul smelling and blocked bio-toilets, IR announced that it will add 80,000 bio-toilets (each costing INR 1 lakh) in FY2018-2019 and will start installing much improved "vacuum bio-toilets" (each costing INR 2.5 lakh) as well.Railways target 80,000 bio-toilets in 2018, vacuum bio-toilets next in line, Economic Times, 20 Dec 2017. By Feb 2018, over 100,000 biotoilets have been installed and the project is on target to have 100% biotoilets by 31 March 2019.Over 1 lakh biotoilets installed, Economic Times, 17 Mar 2018.

Hyperloop Mumbai–Pune hyperloop Mumbai–Pune hyperloop is a proposed 1000 km/h Hyperloop system that will take 14 minutes compared to current 3 hours to commute between these two cities while carrying 10,000 commuters per hour (5,000 in each direction). The route is found feasible and can be made operational by 2026 as per the Detailed Project Report (DPR) submitted to "Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority" (PMRDA) by "Virgin Hyperloop company" in January 2018. Commuters and cargo will travel in pods traveling in the near-vacuum tubes at the speed of 1,000 km/h. DPR provided three feasible terminal end-points options in Mumbai, namely Dadar, Santacruz and the international airport. Currently, 300,000 people commute between these two cities daily in 110,000 vehicles (including 80,000 cars and 6,000 buses).Pune-Mumbai in 14 minutes: Firm’s project report says Hyperloop transport system feasible, Hindustan Times, 9 Jan 2018. (as of Jan 2018)

On December 2024, India's First Hyperloop Test track was completed successfully at Thaiyur near Chennai and soon trials are about to start on this test track.

Infrastructure

Stations Station redevelopment

Under a INR 1 trillion initiative,Indian Railways unit invites proposals to modernize 3 stations, Livemint, 17 Mar 2018. 600 railway stations will be redeveloped by monetizing 2700 acres of spare railway land under the plan undertaken by Indian Railway Stations Development Corporation by converging it with the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation and Smart Cities Mission in collaboration with Ministry of Urban Development, Rail Land Development Authority and National Buildings Construction Corporation. Following monetization of land, will be used for the commercial development, for station redevelopment and the remaining as surplus with the Railways. Initially A1 and A category stations will be prioritised.Railways appoints IRSDC as nodal agency for station redevelopment, Livemint, 5 Dec 2017. To begin with 22 stations will be developed by end of 2018.

Under Amrit Bharat Station Scheme, invited proposals in February 2023 for redeveloping 2000 stations over next decade, including the Gandhinagar railway station, Banaras railway station, Chandigarh railway station, Bijwasan railway station and Anand Vihar railway station costing Rs140 crore, Rs310 crore and Rs206 crore respective.

Tracks

Dedicated freight corridors