Delhi to Mumbai in 12 hrs as new infra to up train speeds

NEW DELHI: Indian Railways is planning to increase speed on some marquee lines, aiming to reduce travel time between Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah from 17 to 12 hours.

The proposal will be placed before the Union cabinet for approval this month, railway minister Suresh Prabhu told HT on Monday.

The plan would make each line the fastest in India, enabling passenger trains to run at top speeds of 200 km per hour.

The Gatimaan Express – which runs between Delhi and Agra — is India’s fastest at present with a maximum speed of 160 km/h.

The railways is trying to change its image from a public sector behemoth trudging along on a mainly British-era network of tracks, to a modern and efficient means of communication by introducing what is describes as “semi- and high-speed” trains.

“The Indian Railways have the rolling stock capability (coaches and locomotives) to run trains at 200 kmph. But there have been several obstacles to speed, such as condition of track structure and signalling or overhead electrical systems,” Prabhu said.

“The plan is to improve the infrastructure on the two corridors... The approach is fundamentally different from what has been attempted in the past,” he added.

Indian Railways operates 19,000 trains daily and carries an estimated 23 million passengers, a number equal to the population of Australia, on its network of tracks running to nearly 64,000 kilometres.

The average speed of many Indian trains is slower by over 100 km/hour from trains in some European countries and even China.

The premier Rajdhani trains currently average around 75 km/h; the express and mail trains trundle along at 52 km/h; and freight trains are not even half as fast as that, averaging only 22 km/h, officials said on the condition of anonymity,

In the past, hundreds of projects have been announced in railway budgets but have languished without approval by the cabinet. An estimated 394 rail projects worth nearly ₹5 lakh crore are pending.