100 Day plan targets obtaining rapid approvals for the project
Indian Railways plans to spend Rs 13,490 crore to upgrade the New Delhi-Howrah and the New – Mumbai Rajdhani routes to a speed of 160 kmph in the next four years.
Once implemented, the project will reduce travel time from 17 hours to 12 hours for Howrah Rajdhani and from 15.5 hours to 10 hours for Mumbai Rajdhani.
Of this, Rs 6,684 crore has been earmarked for New Delhi-Howrah route and Rs 6,806 crore for the New Delhi-Mumbai route.
Both these routes put together, account for 30 per cent of passenger and 20 per cent of goods traffic of the country.
The proposal is being sent by the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs for approval. A fixed time, fixed cost EPC contract (engineering, procurement, construction contract) is being planned for timely project execution.