Major challenges to the Indian Railways :
- There is excessive over-crowding in railway coaches especially in Second Class. Due to over-crowding, the plight of passengers traveling by second class is miserable. Provision of more and more sleeper coaches is a step to meet this challenge.
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- Railways have to cope with the changing pattern of agro-industrial scenario of the country. Fertilisers, foodgrains, coal, mineral ores and mineral oil have become the dominant commodities to be hauled over long distance. The electrification of Railways throughout its track is yet another challenged particularly near coal and lignite mines and major industrial cities.
Did Railway succeed in meeting these challenges :
- The capacity of railways to carry traffic has been increased. A number of new trains have been introduced. Computerised reservation system has been introduced to curb the hardships of passengers and also to reduce the malpractices considerably.
- There have been distinct efforts to electrify major railway routes. Now about one tenth of railway track is electrified. The pipelines carrying mineral oil and natural gas separately, are also the step in the right direction which will decrease the burden of Indian Railways.