Train travel to get faster with these 2 high-speed projects, nod awaited

New Delhi: The Ministry of Railways is set to approach the Cabinet to clear two semi-high speed projects. The ministry will soon submit the proposal for cabinet clearance.

The ambitious Rs 18,000 crore project for increasing train speeds on the Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah rail corridors has already got the Niti Aayog's approval.

he mega project is meant to bring about a paradigm shift in rail operations enabling trains to run at 160 km per hour on the busiest routes on the Indian railway network.

Aiming at reducing travel time between the three metropolises, the project envisages fencing off the entire 3,000 kms on both routes, upgradation of signalling system, elimination of all level crossings and installing train protection warning system (TPWS), among other works to make trains run at an increased speed of 160 kmh.

The 1,483-km long New Delhi-Mumbai rail route will also include the Baroda-Ahmedabad sector, and is estimated to cost Rs 11,189 crore.

The 1,525-km long New Delhi-Howrah route, which also includes the Kanpur-Lucknow section, is estimated to cost Rs 6,974 crore.
Railways is also working on eight other semi-high-speed routes at present. These include the 244-km Delhi-Chandigarh corridor, for which French major SNCF has submitted a feasibility report.

Russian Railways is working on a feasibility-cum-implementation study of 575-km Nagpur-Secunderabad corridor and similarly the Chennai-Kazipet and Mysuru-Bengaluru-Chennai routes are also being planned with German collaboration.