Railways working on multi-pronged strategy to speed up rail travel: ministry

Indian Railways is working on a multi-pronged strategy for running of high speed trains (with a speed of 300 kmph+), semi high speed trains (with a speed of 160 kmph+ - 200kmph), besides increasing the speeds of existing trains and introduction of faster trains, the railway ministry said.

A high speed train (300 kmph+) has already been sanctioned on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high speed corridor with financial and technical assistance from the Japanese government. This train is based on Japanese Shinkansen high speed technology used in Japan's Bullet Trains.

A new company named National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited has already been formed to undertake this project, which has already begun, The high-speed rail corridor should be functioning by 2023-24, the railway ministry statement said.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has undertaken a study for this high speed train, popularly referred to as Bullet Train, for which the Japanese government is providing financial assistance in the form of loan up to 81 per cent of the project cost at a nominal interest rate of 0.1 per cent per annum to be repaid in 50 years with a 15-year moratorium.

In addition to Mumbai-Ahmedabad high speed (300 kmph+) corridor, five more corridors covering various sides of diamond quadrilaterals and semi diagonals in the country are being explored and consultants have been appointed to undertake feasibility studies, the release added.

A Chinese-led consortium of The Third Railway Survey and Design Institute Group Corporation and Lahmeyer International (India) Private Limited has submitted interim report on the Mumbai-Delhi high-speed train and the second interim report is expected in November 2016. The final report is expected in January 2017.

A French consortium of SYSTRA, RITES and  Ernst and Young LLP submitted its interim report on the Mumbai-Chennai high-speed train and its second interim report its expected in November 2016. The final report will be ready in January 2017.

A Spanish consortium of INECO- TYPSA-Intercontinental Consultants and Technocrats Private Limited, which is working on the Delhi-Kolkata high-speed rail corridor has submitted is first and second interim reports and its final report is expected in January 2017.

The Delhi-Nagpur high-speed rail corridor under government-to-government cooperation with Chinese Railway Company has submitted inception report of the JV, while another government-to-government cooperation with Spanish Railway companies has submitted its first interim report. The second interim report is expected in November and the final report is expected in January 2017.

Indian Railways, the report said, has also taken up a programme of running of semi high speed trains (160 kmph+ - 200kmph) in a big way. It has already started running such a train with the name Gatimaan Express between Hazrat Nizammuddin and Agra Cantt Station (with effect from 5 April 2016) with a maximum speed of 160 kmph. In addition to this Delhi-Agra semi high speed corridor, Indian Railways has identified eight more corridors for feasibility of semi high speed rail in various zones.

These include Delhi-Chandigarh (Northern Railway), Chennai-Bengaluru-Mysore (Southern, South Western Railway), Delhi-Kanpur (Northern, North Central Railway), Nagpur-Bilaspur (South East Central railway), Mumbai-Goa (Central, South Western and Konkan Railway), Mumbai-Ahmedabad (Western Railway), Chennai- Hyderabad (Southern, South Central railway) and Nagpur-Secunderabad (Central, South Central Railway).

Indian Railways is also currently undertaking field trials for assessing savings in transit time by using special type Spanish Talgo Coaches on existing New Delhi-Mumbai corridor. These are faster trains which may run at around 200 kmph.

The Railways is also working on a proposal to acquire modern electrical EMU train sets which will have a good average speed thereby saving travel time substantially.

With a view to increasing speed of existing trains in Indian Railways, 'Mission Raftaar' has been announced in the Railway Budget 2016-17. 

The mission envisages a target of doubling of average speed of freight trains and increasing the average speed of all non-suburban passenger trains by 25 kilometre per hour (kmph) in next 5 years. The present level of average speeds in Indian Railways for non-suburban passenger trains is 46.3 kmph and for freight trains the average speeds is 24.2 kmph. In order to implement this, a cross-functional mission directorate has been created in the Railway Board.

Besides these, the ministry has announced the introduction of faster train services like `Tejas' which requires minimal technological inputs and aims at attaining speeds above 130 kmph.