Why Railways' target of electrifying 28,000 km of tracks is a tough ask

The Indian Railways appears to have electric ambitions, quite literally. Over the next three years, it plans to electrify 28,000 route km (RKM) of track. At least part of the confidence in setting such accelerated targets has to do with the achievements over the term of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Official data shows, the national transporter electrified 8,411 RKM between 2014-15 and 2017-18, compared to just 2,617 km added in the previous four years.
 
As on January 2019, 2,033 RKM  were commissioned during the financial year 2018-19, which means the NDA government's tenure saw the completion of over