Rail boost for India: New bridges, freight corridors and 164 Vande Bharat trains power 2025 growth story

Indian Railways expanded into some of its toughest terrains in 2025, with landmark projects such as the country’s first vertical-lift in Pamban, Tamil Nadu and the world’s highest rail bridge on the Chenab river, providing an all-weather rail link to Kashmir.

This year also saw rail connectivity reach Mizoram through the commissioning of the Birabi-Sairang line, completing the long-pending links to remote and strategically significant regions in the Northeast. These projects marked a major push towards integrating difficult geographies with the national rail network.

In 2025, the Ministry of Railways launched 42 projects in the country, collectively valued at more than Rs 25,000 crore.

The railways also operated a record number of special trains, and rapidly expanded Vande Bharat services with 15 new trains introduced during the year. A total of 164 Vande Bharat Express trains now run in the country, the railway ministry said in its year-end review.

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According to the Ministry of Railways, 13 Amrit Bharat trains were also added to the country’s train-network, taking the total number of such services to 30. Two Namo Bharat Rapid Rail services also became operational, connecting Bhuj and Ahemdabad in Gujarat, and also Jaynagar in Bihar’s Madhubani district with state capital Patna.

Looking forward, the railway ministry said it will soon operationalise the first Vande Bharat Sleeper for AC class travellers. In 2025, Indian Railways also operated a record number of 43,000 special train trips to manage heavy passenger traffic during festival seasons and peak travel periods.

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Infrastructure creation also remained a focus for the railway ministry, with more than 900 km of new railway lines commissioned between April and November 2025, alongside large-scale renewal of existing tracks to enable safer and faster train operations.

The ministry said that electrification of the broad gauge network advanced to near completion with around 99.2 per cent of routes completed.

Safety indicators showed a sharp improvement this year, with train accidents declining to 11 till November, compared to 31 during the previous year. To further improve safety and traffic flow, various railway zones constructed 1,161 Road-Over-Bridges and Road-Under-Bridges.

Station redevelopment also gathered pace across the country, with 1,337 stations taken up for modernisation under the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme, which the ministry claims as “one of the world’s largest station reconstruction initiatives”.

stations had been fully upgraded, offering passenger facilities such as modern concourses, improved waiting areas, escalators and lifts.

Manufacturing of the rolling stock also rose, with more than 4,224 Linke-Hofmann-Busch (LHB) coaches produced during 2025-26 up to November, an increase of 18 per cent over the corresponding period last year.

One of the country’s most ambitious projects, the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail (MAHSR) Project achieved 55.63 per cent physical progress as of November 30, 2025, the ministry further said.

Indian Railways also launched the RailOne App in 2025, as a comprehensive one-stop solution for passenger services. The app is available on Android and iOS platforms, the ministry added.

Another passenger-friendly initiative included the Aadhaar-Authenticated Reservation Reforms, under which only Aadhaar-authenticated users are permitted to book general reserved tickets during the first 15 minutes of reservation opening on the IRCTC website or app.

Freight operations also received a boost this year with the commissioning of two Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFC) – Eastern DFC from Ludhiana to Sonnagar (1337 Km) and the Western DFC from Jawaharlal Nehru Port Terminal to Dadri (1506 Km).

Barring a sharp stretch near the 102 km Vaitarna-JNPT Mumbai section which is under progress, both the freight corridors have been operationalised, the Ministry of Railway said.

“To increase freight earnings by maximising induction of new wagons in Indian Railways, wagon manufacturing was scaled up during the last three years on account of the target of 3000 MT (million tons) loading by 2029-30,” it added.

Production of wagons was reinforced, leading to wagon production of 3651, 3880, 4135 in January, February, and March 2025, respectively, resulting in the maximum production of wagons, which touched 41,929 in 2024-25, the highest in the last three years.

(Except the headline, this story has not been edited by Firstpost staff)