Indian Railways to invest Rs 18,000 cr on high-speed train project

Thursday, October 24, 2019

The Indian Railways have plans to implement a Rs 18000-crore project to operate high-speed trains at 160 km/hr on the busy Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Kolkata routes by upgrading the existing infrastructure, board chairman VK Yadav said Tuesday.

The project is expected to take at least four years to complete, Yadav informed after inaugurating the ‘International Rail Conference-2019’ and the ‘13th International Railway Equipment Exhibition’ here.

The events have been organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in association with the Railways at Aerocity here.

The railways’ target is to operate high speed trains in two categories – at 160 km/hr on the Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Kolkata routes, and up to 320 kmph under the ongoing bullet train project between Mumbai-Ahmedabad.

Currently, the average maximum speed of trains on various routes is 99 km/hr and the recently introduced Delhi-Varanasi Vande Bharat Express touches an average speed of 104 kmph on the Delhi-Kanpur section.

The upgrade of infrastructure to operate trains at 160 km/hr includes fencing, upgrade of track and signalling, and elimination of unmanned level-crossings, according to the Railway Ministry.

The Indian Railways is in a ‘transformation mode’ and ‘is in the process of modernisation’, Yadav said, adding that as a part of this, the 68,000-km broad-gauge track network will be electrified in the next three years. He said that at present, 28,000 km is electrified and for next year a target of 7000 km has been set.

« Back to Page