The proposed programme would build stronger east-west railway connections across India with useful spur lines. Routes already crossed the country, but many were indirect rather than true main lines. Storm damage made that network more fragile and exposed the cost of relying on circuitous connections. A resilient system also needed trained organizations able to rebuild damaged track quickly. More rails alone would not solve the recovery problem.
Notable Point · 47:54-48:46
India needed direct main lines and repair capacity
Existing cross-country routes did not substitute for direct main lines, especially when storms damaged indirect links and rapid reconstruction capacity was weak.