New Delhi: The Indian Railways will implement a Rs 18000-crore project to operate trains at a speed of 160 km/hr on the busy Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Kolkata routes by upgrading infrastructure, board chairman VK Yadav said Tuesday.
Once the project begins, it will 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 railways is in a ‘transformation mode’ and ‘is in the process of modernisation’, Yadav said, adding that as part of this, the 68000-km broad-gauge track network will be electrified in the next three years. He said at present, 28,000km is electrified and for next year a target of 7000km has been set.
CII Director-General Chandrajit Banerjee highlighted the importance of the exhibition when India is in the fast track of development.
PTI
