Indian Railways' Vast Land: 12.33 Lakh Acres Owned, But Encroachment & Monetization Failures Revealed

• Indian Railways owns a massive 4.99 lakh hectares (12.33 lakh acres) of land, making it one of the largest landholders among PSUs, as stated by Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.
• Approximately 1,068.54 hectares (2,640 acres) of railway land are encroached upon, hindering development, with legal actions underway to remove these encroachments.
• A CAG report criticized Indian Railways for failing to monetize its vast vacant land, noting that only 1.6% of 62,740 hectares of vacant land was allocated to RLDA for commercial development.
• Administrative delays led to only 59 out of 188 land development proposals reaching RLDA, and only 8.8% of RLDA-allocated land was developable, indicating systemic weaknesses.
• Railways face ₹4,087 crore in unrecovered dues from 269 private siding owners and safety concerns like 2,961 annual signaling failures in SWR, highlighting revenue and operational inefficiencies.

Why It Matters: Indian Railways holds vast land but struggles with widespread encroachment, poor monetization, and significant unrecovered dues.