E-Paper
Trains to travel at 160 kmph on Delhi-Howrah route by 2023
The 1,525-km long Delhi-Howrah Route passes through five states, namely Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, and West Bengal.
The central government has given its approval to increase the speed of the Delhi-Howrah route (including Kanpur-Lucknow) to 160 km per hour at a total cost of ₹6,685 crore by 2022-23. This will ensure improved speed, service and safety besides creating capacity as part of Indian Railways’ Mission Raftaar, inform officials.
“As part of the ‘Mission Raftaar’, Indian Railways is working in a mission mode to improve the average speed of trains across the network. Increasing the speed of the Delhi-Howrah section to 160 Kmph from the existing 130 kmph will ensure up to 60% increase in average speed of passenger trains and doubling of average speed of freight traffic,” said Ajeet Singh, chief public relations officer, North Central Railway (NCR), Prayagraj.
The 1,525-km long Delhi-Howrah Route passes through five states, namely Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, and West Bengal.
NCR’s role is very important in execution of this work as it covers biggest stretch of 53% of Delhi-Howrah route between Gaziabad and Pt Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Junction on Allahabad division.
The travel time between New Delhi and Howrah will be reduced by 5 hours, now making it a fully overnight journey.
It will also give an impetus to semi-high speed trains like the Vande Bharat Express. It will allow such trains to unlock their full potential and travel at a speed of 160 Kmph, to ensure passengers have best in class speed and service. In addition, it has been found that the safer LHB coaches too can be made fit for this speed, he added.
The project, to be completed in 4 years from the date of approval, will help boost employment during the construction phase. It will also help kick-start an economic multiplier that will give a boost to growth in all states, they add.
As a part of Mission Raftaar, Government has also granted similar approval for the Delhi-Mumbai route, which together with the Delhi-Howrah route account for 29% of passenger traffic and 20% of freight traffic.
