New Delhi: Going ahead with its ambitious
high-speed train proposal, Railways have joined hands with
Japan to begin the ground work to reduce travel time by half
on the Delhi-Mumbai corridor.
Railways will procure a new set of trains with electric
locomotives to run on the existing Delhi-Mumbai track.
"The pre-feasibility study for running train at a
maximum speed of 160-200 km per hour is being carried out by
Japan on the existing Delhi-Mumbai route and they (Japan) will
submit the report next month," said a senior Railway Ministry
official involved with the project named Golden Rail Corridor.
Currently, Mumbai Rajdhanis run at an average speed of
100 km per hour and take about 15 hours to reach the
destination.
"Our aim is to reduce the travel time by almost half
between Delhi-Mumbai and for this we have to procure train
sets to run at higher speed on the existing track," the
official said.
Train sets are like EMU trains consisting of
self-propelled electric locomotive and 10 to 12 modern
coaches.
"Since our existing locomotives are not designed to run
on 200 km speed we have to go for the train set in the Golden
Rail Corridor," he said, adding "We have to strengthen the
track, bridges and modernise the signalling system before
increasing the speed to 200 km per hour."
There will be a new fare structure for the high-speed
train for the Golden Rail Corridor.
Asked how the existing track will take the load of new
trains, he said, "All the freight trains will be shifted from
Mumbai-Delhi route after the commissioning of the Western
Dedicated Freight Corridor. So, we will utilise the additional
capacity of the existing track for the train sets."
The Western DFC is likely to be commissioned by 2016-17.
PTI
