Freight decarbonisation in India is a story of two very different transitions happening at very different speeds. Indian Railways has executed one of the fastest large-scale railway electrification programmes in history — going from 1.42 km of electrification per day in 2004-14 to 19.7 km per day in 2023-24, reaching 99.1% of its broad-gauge network by August 2025. In FY 2024-25 alone, the Railways cut diesel consumption by 178 crore litres — a 62% reduction from 2016-17 levels. Indian Railways is targeting net-zero carbon emissions by 2030 and has commissioned over 756 MW of renewable capacity toward that goal, procuring power through the Green Energy Open Access framework.

Road freight is a much harder problem. Medium and heavy duty trucks make up only 2% of total vehicles but are responsible for 35% of on-road fuel consumption and 45% of total on-road transport emissions. Despite this, fewer than 1,000 electric heavy trucks operate in India today. The barriers are high upfront vehicle costs, limited charging infrastructure along freight corridors, a fragmented industry structure dominated by small fleet operators, and the absence of strong regulatory mandates. The e-FAST India platform — launched by NITI Aayog with WRI India as lead partner — is the primary initiative working to address these barriers through policy design, pilots and cross-sector collaboration.

See the Industrial Decarbonisation Policy Map for a full view of the regulatory framework across freight and other sectors. For India’s NDC targets including the Indian Railways net-zero 2030 commitment, see the India Decarbonisation page. To compare freight with the other four sectors, visit the Sectors overview.