Indian Railways is always working towards making train travel better for the passengers. This time the Indian Railways has come up with a plan to reduce the travel time on the New Delhi-Howrah route by 2.5 hours. In a move to cut down on long train journeys, Indian Railways is set to cut the travel time between New Delhi and Howrah rail route by 2.5 hours and increase train speed to 160 kmph.
Presently, Rajdhani Express has the fastest and lowest travel time on 1,525 km New Delhi – Howrah rail route. It takes 17.5 hours to complete the journey via Gaya in Bihar. However, with the increased speed, the journey will be completed in less than 15 hours.
The initiative to reduce the travel time between two stations comes under the Indian Railways ‘Mission Raftaar’. Mission Raftaar aims to reduce the travel time between busy destinations by passenger trains to less than 160 kmph. It is considered a paradigm shift for the development of the rail network. Earlier the highest allowed speed was 130 kmph.
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To implement Mission Raftaar, Indian Railways will improve the preparation of tracks for high speed by fencing, latest technology used by European countries, Africa and China such as Overhead Equipment Modification (OEM) and automatic train protection on the route.
The work of increasing the speed up to 160 kmph on New Delhi-Howrah rail route has already been approved. Like the New Delhi-Howrah rail route, the authorities also plan to cut travel time on the 1,483-km-long New Delhi-Mumbai rail route. Railway officials hope to reduce the travel time by at least an hour. The Railways expects that the plan to increase the speed of trains on the Delhi-Howrah route will be completed before September 2023.