Union cabinet approves Delhi-Mumbai Semi High Speed Rail corridor

New Delhi (Urban Transport News): To reduce the journey time between two metropolitan cities, the Union cabinet has approved the proposal for converting New Delhi-Howrah and New Delhi-Mumbai route to a 160 kmph (semi high speed rail corridor). This step will reduce travel time by at least three and half hours and the journey will now be covered in around 12 hours. The Indian Railways want to increase the maximum speed of passenger and freight trains but also the average speed and move will give boost to Indian Railways’ ambitious project of ‘Mission Raftaar’.

100-day plan

This is one of the 11 proposals prepared by the Indian Railways in its 100-day plan, with instructions to initiate immediate action to implement them by August 31. According to the data, it has been revealed that only 0.3% of the over 60,000 km of the railway network is fit to handle trains running at 160 kilometres per hour while 5% of the network is fit to handle trains running at 130 kilometres per hour. Interacting with Hindustan Times, a government spokesperson said,

The government has given its approval for increasing the speed of the Delhi-Mumbai route (including Kanpur-Lucknow) to 160 kmph at a total cost of Rs. 6,806 crore by 2022-23. This will ensure improved speed, service, safety and create capacity.

New Delhi-Mumbai Route

The Delhi-Mumbai route covers a distance of 1,483 kilometres by rail and passes through seven states namely Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra. After implementing the proposed project, the travel time between New Delhi and Mumbai will be reduced by three-and-a-half hours.

Mission Raftaar: Soon, Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah train journey in 12 hours at 160 kmph!

This mega plan of Railways will ensure passengers have best-in-class safety, speed and service. https://t.co/3E2pW0ec2g pic.twitter.com/28OYURRFbs — Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) August 7, 2019

To enhance safety reliability, the semi high speed rail project includes fencing, automatic train protection system, mobile train radio communication, automated and mechanised diagnostic systems, which will considerably enhance safety and reliability.

New Delhi-Howrah Route

The cabinet has also granted similar approval for the Delhi-Howrah route, which together with the Delhi-Mumbai route account for 29% of passenger traffic and 20% of freight traffic. This route will also be converted into semi high speed rail corridor. Indian Railways is working to cover the complete golden quadrilateral and diagonals that consist of 16% of its total network, but account for 52% of total passenger traffic and 58% of total freight traffic.

Business & Employment opportunities

Railways claims that this project will help boost employment during the construction phase with more than 3.6 crore mandays to be generated directly. The project will also lead to an increase in throughput on the route by 30-35%, paving the way for PPP models in the future. Similarly, the Delhi-Howrah Route covers a distance of 1,525 kilometres by rail and passes through five states namely Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, and West Bengal. After implemeting the project, the travel time between New Delhi and Howrah will be reduced by five hours.

Project cost

The union cabinet has given its approval for increasing the speed of the Delhi-Howrah route (including Kanpur-Lucknow) to 160 km/h at a total cost of Rs 6,685 crore by 2022-23. The both routes will cost a total of Rs.13,500 crore.