Western Railways is upgrading infrastructure on a large scale to increase the speed of trains on its network. Railways aims to increase the maximum speed from the current 100-110 km per hour to 130 km per hour on many routes. At the same time, work is also going on to run trains at a speed of 160 km per hour on the busy Mumbai-Delhi main railway route. Western Railway General Manager Ramashray Pandey gave this information while talking to the media at the Western Railway Headquarters at Churchgate on Tuesday. He said that the objective of this speed increase plan is to reduce travel time, improve operational efficiency and provide faster and better connectivity to the passengers.
Speed of 130 km per hour on many routes
According to Ramashray Pandey, on the routes where trains currently run at a speed of 100 or 110 km per hour, the track and other facilities are being upgraded so that the trains can run at a speed of up to 130 km per hour. Along with this, the work of preparing the Mumbai-Delhi rail corridor from 130 km per hour to 160 km per hour is also going on.
Dedicated freight corridor will increase capacity
He said that after the launch of Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC), the pressure of goods trains will be less from the main railway network. This will provide additional capacity on the existing track and it will be possible to operate more number of passenger trains.
Demand for Vande Bharat sleeper trains
Western Railway has also demanded 3 to 4 Vande Bharat sleeper trains to operate on various routes. With the combination of these trains, long distance travel can become more comfortable and faster.
Facilities will increase at Bandra Terminus
Plans are also being made for the redevelopment of the poor urban area of Bandra. Passenger facilities will be developed here and some railway structures, such as diesel shed, will be shifted to another place. After this, 10 new stabling lines will be built at Bandra Terminus, through which at least 10 new trains can start operating.
24 coach trains on Mumbai Central
Railways will expand all five platforms at Mumbai Central Terminus in a phased manner over the next few years. At present only trains with a maximum of 22 coaches can operate here, but after expansion, trains with 24 coaches can also be handled.
Decline in number of passengers
Ramashray Pandey said that in the last two months, there has been a decline of 2 percent in the passenger traffic of Western Railways. In the last financial year this decline was only 0.2 percent. He believes that some passengers have now switched to metro services.
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