The Indian Railways has decided to reserve a limited number of berths for those holding high official positions under Emergency Quota in different trains and in different classes.

Those who can avail of this quota are High Official Requisition (HOR) holders such as Central Government Ministers, Judges of Supreme Court and High Courts of various States and Members of Parliament. Besides the HOR category persons, the quota will help the Railways meet other emergent demands.

The quota is released by the Railways in accordance with the priority as per warrant of precedence and well established practice being followed since long.

At the time of allotment of berths/seats, emergency quota is first allotted for self travel of HOR holders/Members of Parliament, etc., strictly as per their inter-se seniority in warrant of precedence. Thereafter, other requisitions received from various quarters are considered and the remaining quota is released taking into account various factors like status of passengers travelling, nature of urgency like travelling on government duty, bereavement in the family, sickness, job interview, etc.

Indian railways has also planned for 1000 MW of solar power plants by 2020-21 with 500 MW at railway rooftops for non-traction use and 500 MW land based for mostly in traction use. The solar power from land based plants shall be mostly used in train operation.

IROAF is implementing provision of Solar Panels on roof top of coaches and Brake Vans of freight trains for taking up part hotel load (electric lighting and fans load).

In Goods train, solar panels on trial basis have been fitted on the roof top of 50 Guard Brake Vans.

In passenger trains solar panels on trial basis has been fitted on the roof top of 6 trailer coaches of Diesel Electric Multiple Units (DEMU).

Solar panels have been installed in over 270 stations across the country.

The Railways has also taken steps to reduce the use of diesel fuel. As per the measures taken, the use of B-5 blended High Speed Diesel (HSD) with 5 per cent Biodiesel in the Diesel Locomotives has been started.

Minimum Inventories of all major Railway Consumer Depots (RCD) have been reduced from 15 to 5 days and trip ration is being reviewed properly to tighten the slack trip rationing.

The Railways are also monitoring the performance of loco pilots based on fuel consumption vis-a-vis trip ration.

To avoid idle running of the Engine of  Diesel locomotive, a Joint Procedure Order (JPO) has been jointly issued at Railway Board level with operating department and accordingly at Zonal Railways level also for shutting down of diesel locos in case of idling of the locomotive.

Under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, cleaning of train coaches including toilets of trains is being done at both ends including mechanised cleaning. On Board Housekeeping Service (OBHS) has been provided in more than 980 pairs of trains for cleaning of coach toilets, doorways, aisles and passenger compartments during the run of the trains.

On demand ‘Clean My Coach’ service is provided in nearly 970 pairs of important Superfast/Mail/Express long distance trains having On Board Housekeeping Service.

By expanding the scope of ‘Clean My Coach’, ‘Coach Mitra’ Service has been provided in nearly 800 OBHS trains as a single window interface to register all coach related requirements of passengers travelling in reserved coaches, such as cleaning, disinfection, linen, train lighting, air conditioning and watering of coaches.

Clean Train Station (CTS) scheme has also been prescribed for limited mechanized cleaning attention to identified trains including cleaning of toilets during their scheduled stoppages enroute at nominated stations.

The Indian Railways also received $ 389.83 million in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) equity inflow from April 2014 to December 2017

A large number of Foreign Governments and Railways have shown keen interest in the station redevelopment program. These include French Railway (SNCF), Korean Railway, Governments of Federal Republic of Germany, China and United Kingdom.