160 kph: Speed increase on New Delhi-Howrah/Mumbai routes moves forward, Railway Board seeks detailed estimates

The Railway Board has sought for detailed estimates for speed raising of New Delhi-Mumbai and New Delhi-Howrah routes to 160 kmph at the earliest.

 The co-ordinating railway zones North Central Railway and Western Railway are required to send the combined estimate to the Railway Board at the earliest.

This follows IR’s decision to spend Rs 13490 crore for upgrading the New Delhi-Howrah and the New -Mumbai Rajdhani routes to 160 kmph by 2023.

The objective is to reduce travel time of Howrah Rajdhani from 17 hours to 12 hours and from Mumbai Rajdhani 15.5 hours to 10 hours.

Of this, Rs 6684 crore was set aside for New Delhi-Howrah route and Rs 6806 crore for the New Delhi-Mumbai route.

The New Delhi-Mumbai route straddles Northern Railway, North Central Railway, West Central Railway and Western Railway. The Delhi-Howrah route goes via Northern railway, North Central Railway, East Central Railway and Eastern Railway.

The present status of sectional speeds on the New Delhi-Howrah and New Delhi – Mumbai routes is as follows:-

ZoneRouteSectionRoute kmMaximum permissble sectional speed (MPS) in kmphSpeed of fastest train(s) in the sectionNumber of fastest train pairsStatus of CRS sanction of 130 kmph sectional speed
NRNew Delhi -MumbaiNew-Delhi -Tughlakabad1712012016Documents recvd from division and are under signature at headquarters. RDSO has called for track monitoring run to monitor track quality fit to raise section speed to 130
NRNew Delhi -MumbaiTughlakabad-Palwal391301601No action required- secion speed already at 130 kmph
NCRNew Delhi -MumbaiPalwal-Mathura831101601Proposal to raise section MPS to 130 kmph between Palwal and Dhaulpur submitted to CRS on December 3,2019
WCRNew Delhi -MumbaiMathura-Nagda5491101309Proposal being prepared. Joint Safety Certificate (JSC) for Confirmatory Oscillograph Car Run (COCR) being prepared.
WRNew Delhi -MumbaiNagda-Ratlam441301303Papers to CRS submitted on December 2,2019. CRS sanction received on March 7,2020
WRNew Delhi -MumbaiRatlam-Limkheda1451001003Papers to CRSfor 110 kmph submitted on December 2,2019 for 65 route kms between Linkheda and Meghnagar. For the remaining 80 route km 130 kmph not feasible on ghat sectionwith steep curves on gradients
WRNew Delhi -MumbaiLimkheda-Godhra401101103Papers to CRSfor 120 kmph submitted on December 2,2019 . However, 130 kmph not feasible on ghat sectionwith steep curves on gradients
WRNew Delhi -MumbaiGodhra-Virar4101301305papers for 130 kmph signed by all concerned. Bridge data awaited. Two trains – Mumbai Ahmedabad Shatabdi and Amumbai Ahmedabad Double decker get diverted  from Vadodara to Ahmedabad
WRNew Delhi -MumbaiVirar-Borivali261101105Not feasible in busy suburban section
WRNew Delhi -MumbaiBorivali-Mumbai Central301001005Not feasible in busy suburban section
TotalNew Delhi -MumbaiNew Delhi -Mumbai1383    
NRNew Delhi-HowrahNew Delhi-Chipiyana Buzurg (Ghaziabad)2911011048Documents recvd from division and are under signature at headquarters. RDSO has called for track monitoring run to monitor track quality fit to raise section speed to 130
NCRNew-Delhi-HowrahChipiyana Buzurg- New West Cabin outer of  Pt.Deen Dayal Upadhyay Jn 75911013029Proposal to CRS submitted on November 8 2019. CRS sanction awaited
ECRNew Delhi-HowrahNew West Cabin- Pradhan Khunta41513013010Dehri-on-Sone Pt Deendayal Upadhyay Jn 3rd line (119.31 km) application to CRS submitted on May 14,2019
ERNew Delhi-HowrahPradhan Khunta -Howrah2501101305 
TotalNew-Delhi-HowrahNew Delhi-Howrah1454    

It is gathered that the finance department at Western Railway headquarters is vetting the detailed estimate of its portion of works costing Rs 4893 crore. The approved cost is Rs 3421 crore.

Detailed estimates vetted by financial advisors of North Central Railway and Northern Railway are awaited.

Corridor Blocks

Northern Railway and North Central Railway are on course to raise sectional speed between New Delhi -Mathura Junction and New Delhi-Pt Deendayal Upadhyay Jn (DDU) to 130 kmph.

It is noteworthy that over 100 trains are already running at 130 kmph between New Delhi -Mathura Junction and New Delhi-Pt Deendayal Upadhyay Jn (DDU) on Northern/North Central Railway based on speed certificates given to individual trains.

However, Northern Railway has requested the Railway Board to incorporate a daily 2 to 3 hour corridor blocks in the new time table for doing track / signal /OHE maintenance on these routes.

NCR’s plans

North Central Railway (NCR) had announced in January 2020 that work on 160 kmph up gradation of New Delhi-Howrah and New Delhi-Mumbai route will be commenced.

As part of this exercise, NCR has targeted to construct seven longer loop lines to accommodate two goods trains simultaneously in one loop line in 2020.

Yard remodeling works at Yamuna Bridge and Kanpur are likely to add to traffic handling capacity.

 With targeted auto signalling between Allahabad- Kanpur in 2020, the entire main line between Ghaziabad – Pt. Deen Dayal Updhyay Jn will be with auto signaling thus enhancing capacity on New Delhi-Howrah route. NCR is also targeting ETCS -level -2 advanced cab signaling system between Bamhrauli to Pt. Deendayal Upadhyay jn.

Also on the anvil by 2020 are 10 Electronic interlocking (EI) works to  enhance traffic handling capacity, completion of fencing /boundary wall between Agra and Palwal besides replacing 100 LC gates by 10 road bridges and 90 road under bridges..

Speed at first loop

The Railway Board has also asked zones to increase speed in sections where most of the works have been done and approvals are pending.

In all BG routes, the first Loop Line Speed should be 30 kmph, according the Railway Board

As at the end of February 2020, railway zones had planned to increase speeds of 234 sections besides increasing speeds of 1st loop line to 30 kmph in stations situated in 98 sections.

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