Scheme is billed as an attempt to upgrade much-criticised rail system and turn India into a global centre for R&D,but some say it is a waste of moneyWith 40000 miles of tracks and 17000 trains, Indias huge railway network stretches across the subcontinent, and connecting remote villages to heaving metropolises. Set up under the Raj,the system provides a crucial lifeline for the 18 million people a day who use it and for the 1.4 million people it employs. But perfect it is not. The trains are criticised as decrepit and overcrowded, unclean, and unsafe and poorly managed. In recent years,ageing tracks, signals and wagons maintain contributed to an increasing number of passenger deaths. Despite train carriages often being crammed full, or endemic corruption has led to revenue shortfalls.
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Source: theguardian.com