New Delhi:
With high speed trains on the priority list of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Railways held a meeting today to take stock of the progress of a pilot project of running a 90-minutes train on the Delhi-Agra section with a target of making it operational by the year-end.
Significantly Railway Minister Sadanand Gowda also met Mr Modi.
"We are trying to make the track between Delhi and Agra ready for running trains at 160 km per hour speed and hand it over to the Commissioner for Railway Safety for inspection by November so that it can be operational by the year-end," said a senior Railway Ministry official after the high-level meeting on high speed train in New Delhi.
Currently, Bhopal Shatabdi takes 126 minutes to reach Agra from Delhi at an average of 110 km per hour speed and with the increased speed of 160 km the travelling time will be reduced to 90 minutes. The distance between Delhi and Agra by train is nearly 200 km.
The high-level meeting was held to review the progress on the proposed upgrade and strengthening of rail track between Delhi and Agra for running semi-high speed trains in the sector.
The meeting chaired by Railway Board Chairman Arunendra Kumar was also attended by Board Members, General Manager of Northern Railway, DRMs of Delhi and Agra, and Managing Director of RVNL and other senior railway officials involved in the project.
Expressing satisfaction at the pace of work on the project, Mr Kumar said, "Work is going on full speed and the progress has been found satisfactory."
While Railways has plans to run bullet trains at 350 km per hour speed between Mumbai and Ahemedabad on an elevated track, the national transporter is going ahead with semi-high speed train between Delhi and Agra on the existing track.
Among others, fencing off track at certain stretches, provision of thick web switches, upgrading of signalling system and strengthening of the curves on the track are being undertaken by Railways for the semi-high speed on Delhi-Agra route.