Soon, travel from Mumbai to Delhi in 12 hours

To reduce the time taken to travel from Mumbai to Delhi from the current 15.5 hours to 12 hours, the Western Railway plans to convert the Mumbai-Delhi line into a semi-high speed corridor under its Mission Raftaar plan.

Senior railway officials said, they planned to execute works worth Rs 4,011 crore to convert the line into a semi high speed corridor to allow trains to run at speeds of up to 160 km per hour.

Ravinder Bhakar, chief public relations officer (CPRO), WR, said a lot of work is included on the WR portion, which includes upgrading tracks, bridges, signalling and overhead equipment installations and the removal of some permanent speed restrictions. “We are ready with the estimate for the entire project, which will be finalised soon,” he said.

In the WR’s proposal, civil works amount to Rs1,933 crore, of which Rs 660 crore will go towards building boundary walls and fencing the corridor. “A semi-high speed rail network needs a high factor of safety from trespassing and cattle being run over. Not only the life of the people or livestock trespassing, but also the passengers aboard the train are put at risk,” a railway official said.

The other major expenses are in the electrical works, which are expected to cost Rs 1,237 crore and include critical upgrades to the current system. “To cater the high speeds, we will need to reduce the span of the overhead equipment structures. Old redundant structures will need to be dismantled. The other major cost would be another feeder line across the entire corridor to cater to the high power requirement of high speed trains,” a senior railway official said.