Vision 2020 - Transportation Research Group of India

STATEMENT BY MINISTER OF RAILWAYS
ON VISION 2020
Government of India
Ministry of Railways
(Railway Board)
In the month of July 2009, I had promised the Hon'ble Members that I would present a document which will
capture the Vision 2020 of the Indian Railways. I take pleasure in presenting this important document in
Parliament, as promised.
When I was the Railway Minister last time (1999-2001), Indian Railways was the second largest railway network
under a single management in the world in terms of route length, after the Russian Railways. It has now slipped to
the third position. Our Vision is to put it on the road to regain the Number Two position in the coming decade and
thereafter gain the Number One position in the subsequent decades not just in size, but in every other significant
respect.
VISION 2020 will address four strategic national goals:
nInclusive development, both geographically and socially;
nStrengthening national integration;
nLarge-scale generation of productive employment; and
nEnvironmental sustainability.
RAILWAYS AS A VEHICLE OF INCLUSIVE DEVELOPMENT AND
NATIONAL INTEGRATION
The Indian Railways' contribution to national integration has been unparalleled. It has knit India together by
connecting all the regions, and almost all the states, in a single transport network. It has always played a unique
role in meeting the transportation needs of the common man, while simultaneously serving as a critical
infrastructure facilitator for the carriage of goods. In the coming decade, it will continue to keep its service focus
on the underprivileged and the poor, even as it expands its services for the more fortunate. It will cater to the
needs of the people across geographies and income strata as well as ethnic, religious and social diversities. It will
better connect centres of commerce and industry, places of pilgrimage, historical sites, and tourist attractions, as
also ports to hinterland. Railways also must reach the remote and underserved areas of the country to bring them
into the national mainstream of development. The Indian Railways has been playing this role in the past, but not
fully. Our Vision is to deepen and broaden this agenda of inclusive and integrative growth and to take it to new
heights.
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