Rail passenger traffic scales new peak in 12-month period

Indian Railways passenger originating volume has continued the uptrend month-on-month, growing from a low of 86.08 million in May 2021, when the second wave of Covid-19 had swamped the country, to 191.89 million July 2921, 292.53 million in August 2021, 344.42 million October 2021, and a new high of 376.98 million in November 2021. These data points have been sourced from the CEIC website, and illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 1

Source: www.ceicdata.com

IBEF website highlights two factors that will contribute to the growth of railway passenger traffic in India:

• India is projected to account for 40% share of total global activity by 2050.
• Rapid urbanisation and rising income levels across the country.
• Railway infrastructure will see total investments of Rs 50 lakh crore ($715.41 billion) by 2030.