Expansion of rail network

Ministry of Railways   14-December, 2012
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Expansion of Railway Network
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As on April 1, 1950, Railways had 53,596 route kilometers which increased to 64,600 route kilometers as on March 31, 2012.

The expansion of Broad Gauge network has been done by way of laying new lines, gauge conversion, laying double/multiple lines and since 1951, about 52,241 kilometers of Broad Gauge line has been laid/converted to Broad Gauge. Due to advantage of door to door service, particularly in respect of short and medium lead and non bulk traffic, road is the preferred mode for certain streams of traffic. To attract such traffic to Railway, Container Corporation of India (CONCOR) and 15 other Private Container Operators have been permitted by Indian Railways to operate container trains with facilities for door to door service. Besides, parcel leasing policy has been implemented to capture small volumes of non bulk traffic by providing end to end logistics. 
This information was given by the Minister of State for Railways Shri Kotla Jaya Surya Prakash Reddy in written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.