Delhi to Mumbai in 12 hours as new infra to boost train speeds
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.
Sources said execution work could begin by January next with a completion date of 2021.
An official, who was not authorised to speak to the media, said that the project will cost ₹18,163 crore.
The railways will focus on improving the electrical systems that direct trains and on civil engineering projects such as the lifting of tracks and the construction of new fences to prevent intrusion of cattle or humans.
“A composite contract for implementing all works will be awarded to one agency, so as to save time,” the official added.
The fastest trains will be equipped with state-of-the-art telecommunications systems such as train protection warning systems and mobile train radio communication systems.
Ultimately, the government hopes to run faster trains throughout the ‘Golden Quadrilateral’, which also includes the Delhi-Chennai and MumbaiKolkata lines.
Of the 9,100 kilometers on the Golden Quadrilateral, tracks along 6,400 km do not have the capacity to run trains at 130 km/h. Speed restrictions are in effect at 730 locations. These stretches have 2,736 level crossings.
“We are working at eliminating these obstacles,” said a ministry official.
Britain has had trains going 200 km/h since 1976, and France is expecting this summer to start running trains that can go above 300 km/h.
The fastest commercial train in the world, China’s Shanghai Maglev, tops out at 430km/h.