The way I see it is, they are trying to save expenses wherever they can so they have budget for other major projects. India imports pretty much all of its oil spending precious foreign currency reserves. So if they can save few thousand litres of fuel every year that's a good saving.
Secondly, IR has ambitious project to electrify all major routes, please see section 5 of the link for ongoing projects (a total of 20k RKM)
Secondly, IR has ambitious project to electrify all major routes, please see section 5 of the link for ongoing projects (a total of 20k RKM)
http://www.core.indianrailways.gov.in/view_section.jsp?lang=...
Thirdly, there is huge ongoing project to set up dedicated freight corridor across the country. To separate freight and passenger traffic.
http://dfccil.gov.in/dfccil_app/Home
Here is one of the drone videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aHSVVR7Z0A
Lastly, they are spending huge money on modernizing the train stations.
https://www.irsdc.com/
All these have to come from the same annual budget (except dedicated freight corridor project)