New Delhi: The Railways has finalised the detailed project report (DPR) for an ambitious project aiming at running trains at 160 kmh on two busy corridors.


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New Delhi-Howrah and New Delhi-Mumbai corridors would be upgraded to run trains at speed of 160 kmph as part of 'Mission Raftaar' launched by railways.


'Mission Raftaar' aims to reduce travelling time in train journeys.


According to the DPR, New Delhi-Howrah sector including Kanpur-Lucknow section is estimated to cost Rs 6,974 crore and the New Delhi-Mumbai corridor including Baroda-Ahmedabad section is slated to cost Rs 11,189 crore.


The work includes civil, electrical and signal and telecom for upgrading the track for high speed use. The work also involves an arduous task of fencing off the Delhi-Howrah and Delhi-Mumbai routes.


Fencing off the entire route is crucial for running trains at 160 kms an hour which can be later raised to 200 kms per hour, a senior Railway Ministry official said.


According to Railways, it would be a paradigm shift for rail network development and besides upgradation, fencing is essential for preventing trespassing and cattle movement to ensure high speed and safety and it will find prominent mention in the budget papers.


Earlier, Railways had undertaken the feasibility study and found that it is a remunerative project with both routes having high rate of return.


While the rate of return for Delhi-Howrah route is 18 percent, it is 14.7 percent for Delhi-Mumbai.


The Delhi-Mumbai section will cover Baroda-Ahmedabad route and Delhi-Howrah sector will also include Kanpur-Lucknow corridor in the project.


The two major trunk routes have been taken up in the first phase and later on Howrah-Chennai and Mumbai-Chennai sectors will also be taken up.