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Although Indian Railways is quite underdeveloped as compared to railway systems of many developed countries, the government has planned many steps to modernise Indian Railways in upcoming years to a great extent. Indian Railways eyes major projects in the next few years! With PM Narendra Modi-led BJP government returning to the office, Indian Railways and its passengers can look forward to continuity in policy making – focus on safety, infrastructure upgradation, increasing speed of trains and enhancing passenger amenities. Indian Railways, often called the lifeline of the country, plays a crucial role in not just passenger and goods movement, but also in the economic growth.

The government has suggested the investment of Rs 5,000,000 crore (US$ 750 billion) in Budget 2019-2020 for railways infrastructure between 2018-30. Railways received a budgetary allocation of Rs 65,837 crore and highest ever outlay for capital expenditure amounting to Rs 1.60 lakh crore in the Budget for the year 2019-20.

The Indian government is undertaking several initiatives as to upgrading its aged railway infrastructure and enhance its quality of service.

Feasibility studies for five high-speed rail corridors were conducted between 2009 and 2010. A "Diamond Quadrilateral" has been planned to connect Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai with a high-speed train network. The Indian government conducted joint surveys with a Japanese government team in 2014, finally approving a corridor between Mumbai and Ahmedabad. The new high-speed service will use a Japanese Shinkansen system and locomotives. The cost of procuring the technology is estimated to be around ?110,000 crore (US$16 billion). India and Japan signed agreements for the project in December 2015; the Japanese government will fund 81% of the total cost with a soft loan fixed at a nominal interest rate. A special committee has recommended the trains be run on an elevated corridor for an additional cost of?10,000 crore (US$1 billion), to avoid the difficulties of acquiring land, building underpasses, and constructing protective fencing. Indian Railways will operate the corridor for a five-year period after its commissioning, and afterwards will be turned over to a private operator. 

Construction work of the corridor began in 2017 and will be completed by 2022.

IR have taken up the project to convert 10,000 km passenger and freight trunk routes in to High-speed rail corridors of India over 10 years (from 2017-2027) with total investment of ?20,000,000 million (equivalent to ?21 trillion or US$300 billion in 2018) and annual investment of ?2,000,000 million (equivalent to ?2.1 trillion or US$30 billion in 2018), where half of the money will be spent on converting exiting routes into high-speed corridors by leap-frogging the technology and the rest will be used to develop the stations and electronic signalling at the cost of ?600,000 million (equivalent to ?630 billion or US$9.1 billion in 2018) to enable automated running of trains at 5–6 minutes frequency. Dedicated freight corridors of 3,300 km length will also be completed thus freeing the dual use high demand trunk routes for running more high-speed passenger trains.

As on April 1, 2019, the Indian Railways have taken up 189 new line projects of length 2,555 km, costing Rs 3,74,753 crore, which are in different stages of execution or planning or sanction 

Indian railways is converting its entire network (except heritage routes) to 1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in) broad gauge to enhance viability. New and converted broad gauge tracks are being introduced at the rate of 7.7 km per day. IR has projected completion date of the same till 2022. Moreover, IR is also focussing on doubling / tripling of railway tracks to reduce congestion and delays while improving safety.

In the 2019-20 Budget, funds of Rs 7,255 crore have been allocated for construction of new lines, Rs 2,200 crore for track gauge conversion, Rs 700 crore for track doubling. The target of new railway lines, gauge conversion, doubling/tripling, etc. for this year is 3750 km against 3596 km in the previous year.

Electrification of all routes to save on the imported fuel costs and improve running speed, IR launched "Mission Electrification" in 2017 to electrify 100% or the remaining 38,000 km of the broad gauge network in five years after fy2017-18 to 2022-2023, this target has been revised to 100% electrification by March 2021. 100% railway track electrification will bring down the annual fuel bill of IR. 

For 2019-20, electrification of 7000 RKM (route kilometre) has been targeted.

India's Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) program is building dedicated freight-only railway lines along highly congested transport corridors connecting the industrial heartland in the north to the ports of Kolkata and Mumbai on the eastern and western coasts. 

DFC will also free up current railway lines, many that have been in existence for over 100 years, to be able to carry more passenger traffic at potentially higher speeds to meet rising demands for quality and comfort. It will also reduce the need for freight to be carried on India's roads, which will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve road safety. 

There are 2 under implementation and 4 approved DFCs with many more planned. DFC will convert existing and implement new DFC as High-speed rail corridors of India.

Under a US$1 trillion initiative, 600 railway stations will be redeveloped by monetizing 2700 acres of spare railway land under the ?1,070,000 crore (US$155 billion) plan undertaken by Indian Railway Stations Development Corporation by converging it with the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation and Smart Cities Mission in collaboration with Ministry of Urban Development, Rail Land Development Authority and National Buildings Construction Corporation. Following monetization of land, ?680,000 crore (US$98 billion) will be used for the commercial development, ?280,000 crore (US$41 billion) for station redevelopment and the remaining ?110,000 crore (US$16 billion) as surplus with the Railways. Initially A1 and A category stations will be prioritised.

Currently, the Indian Railway Stations Development Corporation Limited (IRSDC), a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) under Railway Ministry is carrying out the redevelopment of stations. Many prominent stations, such as Habibganj, Gandhinagar, Surat, Baiyappanahalli stations, etc., will get an airport-like makeover along with several modern facilities and amenities in the coming years. Besides, all the railway stations across the country are being upgraded and beautified. Many of them, including New Delhi railway station, Mathura Junction, Jaipur Junction, Haridwar, Lonavala stations and others have already undergone major renovation.