High-speed rail lines on Mumbai-Ahmedabad-Delhi route to be completed by March 2024: Railway official

Indian Railways are expecting that when the upgradation of the rail lines is completed, the first Vande Bharat sleeper train will also be operational, the officials said, adding that there is a possibility that the country’s first such train could run on this route

Mumbai: The Western Railway (WR) is upgrading the rail lines on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad-Delhi route that will allow trains to run at 160 kmph and the work – under ‘Mission Raftaar’ – will be completed by March 2024, railway officials said on Friday.

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Indian Railways are expecting that when the upgradation of the rail lines is completed, the first Vande Bharat sleeper train will also be operational, the officials said, adding that there is a possibility that the country’s first such train could run on this route.

‘Mission Raftaar’ is gaining speed with WR authorities currently working on two main trunk routes – 694-kilometre long Mumbai Central-Nagda section and 100-kilometre Vadodara-Ahmedabad section – at a cost of ₹3,227 crores.

“A protection wall spread across 195 kilometres is being constructed, of which 30 kilometres of work is completed. Moreover, a metal barrier fence between Mumbai and Ahmedabad has been built on a stretch of 474 kilometres out of the total 570 kilometres,” a WR official said.

Apart from this, West Central Railway is upgrading the rail network on the 545-kilometre route from Nagda to Mathura at an expense of ₹2,664 crore. While the North Central Railway is executing the upgradation work on the 82-kilometre stretch from Mathura to Palwal, the Northern Railway has taken up the work of the 57-kilometre stretch on the Palwal-Delhi route.

“The ‘Mission Raftaar’ project was first approved in 2017-18, which requires strengthening rail tracks and bridges between the two cities. It will also entail the upgradation of the overhead cables that supply power to the trains, installation of ‘Kavach’ on the entire route for improving the safety and signalling network, and fencing both sides of the rail lines to prevent trespassing on tracks,” the WR official said.

On Friday, Minister of Railways, Communications and Electronic and Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw, in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha, said that ‘Kavach’ tenders have been awarded for Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah corridors for approximately 3,000 route kilometres (RKM) and work is in progress on these routes.

The Indian Railways are preparing a ‘Detailed Project Report’ and estimate for another 6,000 RKM. The amount spent so far on ‘Kavach’ implementation is ₹351.91 crore.

“The work is in an advanced stage, and we are aiming to complete this rail upgrade falling under our jurisdiction by March next year,” the WR official said.

Once complete, the travel time on the Mumbai-Delhi route will come down from 16 hours to 12 hours. Railway officials said Vande Bharat sleeper trains will be a game changer, which could replace older versions of trains plying on this route though Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto are likely to continue.

According to sources, of 86 Vande Bharat trains, around 11 of them are the sleeper version. The railways intend to run a total of 400 Vande Bharat trains across the country in the next four years. These include different versions of Vande Bharat, Vande Bharat Sleeper and Vande Bharat Metro. Railways have decided to order an additional 240 Vande Bharat sleeper coaches, for which tenders worth ₹30,000 crore is expected.