RAILS, RAKES AND RISING AMBITIONS

A manufacturing renaissance is reshaping Indian railways, turning domestic rolling stock production into a competitive, export-ready industry with green and local innovation at its heart.

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The rhythmic clank of tracks and the smell of fresh paint on a new coach are becoming familiar signs of a quiet industrial revolution. Over the last two years, India has moved from being primarily a consumer of rail technology to a serious manufacturer of it. That shift is not just about numbers on a balance sheet. It is a story about factories humming with new orders, firms investing in higher capacity, and a policy push that has nudged private industry to build confidently and sell beyond India’s borders.

One of the clearest measures of that change is coach production. In the financial year 2024-25, Indian Railways produced 7,134 coaches, an increase of about nine percent over the previous year. That rise was not accidental. It reflects concentrated efforts to expand manufacturing lines, speed up procurement and prioritise affordable non-air-conditioned coaches that carry millions of everyday commuters. This uptick is a practical barometer of how capacity is translating into mobility for ordinary people.

Policy decisions are helping fuel this momentum. The government has set ambitious capital expenditure targets for the sector, with railways capex for 2025-26 projected in the hundreds of thousands of crores of rupees. Those funds are targeted at new lines, electrification, modernisation and purchase of rolling stock, and they create a predictable demand pipeline that manufacturers can plan against. In short, money committed to infrastructure is seeding orders for the shop floor.