This year's Union Budget made provisions of a mere Rs 1 lakh given to the Western Railway (WR) for the plan of raising the speeds of long-distance trains to 160 to 200 kmph
While the Railways had promised that a regular Rajdhani or August Kranti train from Mumbai would zip at speeds up to 200 kmph to reach Delhi in a matter of 12 hours, the plan has now been put on the back burner.
This year's Union Budget made provisions of a mere Rs 1 lakh given to the Western Railway (WR) for the plan of raising the speeds of long-distance trains to 160 to 200 kmph. The total project cost for the Mumbai-Vadodara-Ahmedabad-Delhi corridor stands at more than Rs 10,000 crore. Senior WR officials said that the existing tracks, overhead electric cables, enhance signalling systems and other infrastructure would require a complete overhaul for the trains to achieve the high speeds.
"The semi-high-speed project is still in the pipeline. We had prepared a detailed report and are awaiting approval from higher authorities," said Mukul Jain, Divisional Railway Manager (Mumbai), Western Railway.
The WR was first supposed to work on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad route that would cost Rs 3,000 crore. The distance between Mumbai and Delhi is 1,483 kms that currently takes around 16 hours.
"The ministry has categorically asked us to first complete safety works (like more FOBs, escalators, lifts, raising of platforms) for which there is no dearth of funds. So for the time being semi-high-speed trains have taken a back seat," said a senior official.
Two semi-high-speed projects — New Delhi-Mumbai and New Delhi-Howrah were proposed under Mission Raftaar in 2016 by former Railway minister Suresh Prabhu. Both these corridors have received approval from Niti Aayog."
Currently the only semi-high-speed train in India is the Gatimaan Express that clocks 160 kmph which runs between Hazrat Nizamuddin and Agra, and is also the fastest. Close to 90 long-distance trains run on the Mumbai-Delhi corridor on a daily basis.
IN THE PIPELINE
- Some of the other semi-high-speed corridors planned:
- Delhi-Chandigarh
- Nagpur-Secunderabad
- Chennai-Kazipet
- Mysuru-Bengaluru-Chennai
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