World Bank To Study Impact Of Increased Speed On Main Trunk Rail Network

The national transporter has assigned the World Bank to carry out an analysis of rail network impact in Indian Railway with increased volume of freight and passenger traffic and also speed of goods and passenger-carrying trains.

The study will determine likely impact on capacity with increased speed and also determine likelihood of semi high-speed corridor on Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah routes which have already been identified for increasing the speed potential for semi-high speed level, that is 160 kmph.

The study will also determine the scope of running semi high-speed trains on Delhi-Allahabad-Varanasi and Delhi-Lucknow-Ayodhya routes.

Upgradation of electric and signalling systems will be part of the speed-up project of these routes.

There is a demand for increasing the speed on main trunk routes to reduce travel time of passengers and ensuring speedy delivery of goods at destinations.

The study will facilitate in the deployment of new Vande Bharat trains for multiple services on not only the Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah routes but also on other routes of the Golden Quadrilateral for which the Railways may decide to upgrade the speed potential in future on similar pattern as has been done for the two routes.

Currently electric upgradation is taking place on Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah routes for increasing the train speed upto 160 kmph to be followed by the fencing of the entire corridor to ensure smooth running of trains.

Since the saturation of the rail network has slowed down the train movement considerably, creating additional capacity is the need of the hour to speed up trains.

While fully commissioning of the Dedicated Freight Corridor is expected to take off the load from the existing routes and create more space for passenger movement , introduction of new age trainsets is also slated to speed up the journey.