Indian Railways (IR) is on track to quadruple all of its its seven high density network according to Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.
Outlining IR’s plan to quadruple its seven high density routes on priority, Vaishnaw said they are spread across nearly 11000 route km and account for 41 per cent of the country’s rail traffic while covering just 16 per cent of the railway network.
Explaining the seven routes with help of a map, Vaishnaw said that IR was already in the process of preparing detailed project reports for those sections that were shaded in yellow. For those sections marked with a red line, quadrupling had either been sanctioned or works were in progress.
The ongoing quadrupling works is aimed at capacity augmentation for supporting future demand for freight and passenger trains, he observed.
The seven high-density routes are:
* Delhi–Howrah via Kanpur, Prayagraj, DDU, Gaya
* Howrah–Chennai via Bhubaneswar, Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada
* Chennai–Mumbai via Guntakal, Wadi and Pune
* Mumbai–Delhi via Vadodara, Ratlam and Kota
* Delhi–Chennai via Jhansi, Bhopal,Nagpur and Warangal
* Mumbai–Howrah via Nagpur, Bilaspur
* Delhi–Guwahati via Bareilly, Gorakhpur, Katihar and NJP
This will also result in lowering cost of transporting besides ensuring cleaner mobility, he concluded.
