Presently, Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail (MAHSR) Project (508 Kms) is the only sanctioned project of High-Speed Rail in India under execution with technical and financial assistance from Government of Japan.

Being highly capital intensive, the decision to sanction any HSR Corridor/Project depends on many factors such as outcome of DPR, techno-economic feasibility, availability of resources such as financing options.

In order to increase the speed and capacity of Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah routes, following works/surveys have been taken up:

Delhi-Mumbai section (1386 Km):

1. The work for raising sectional speed to 160 kmph has been sanctioned and is in advance stage.
2. Out of 1386 Km route length, 196 Km has 4 rail lines and construction of 3^rd & 4^th line between Dahanu Road-Virar (64 Km) has been taken up.
3. Survey for 3^rd and 4^th line in the balance section for 1126 KM has-been sanctioned.
4. 1404 Km of Western DFC (double line) has been commissioned and the work in the balance section for 102 Km has been taken up.
5. Construction of Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Corridor (double line) covering length of 508 Km has been taken up.

Delhi-Howrah section (1450 Km):

1. The work for raising sectional speed to 160 kmph has been sanctioned and is in advance stage.
2. Presently, out of 1450 Km route length, 194 Km is 4-line section, 312 Km is 3-line section and balance 944 Km is double line rail section.
3. Following projects have been sanctioned and work taken up:

• Multi tracking of Son Nagar – Andal (375 Km)
• Aligarh  - Daud Khan 3^rd line (18 Km)
• Mughalsarai - Allahabad  3^rd line (150 Km)
• Kalipahari-Bakhtarnagar 5^th Line (18 Km)
• Saktigarh-Chandanpur 4^th line (43 Km)
• Extension of Nimcha up avoiding line (9.42 Km)

4. Surveys for construction of 3^rd line of 480 km, 4^th line of 96 Km and 5th line of 151 Km have been sanctioned.
5. Eastern DFC (1337 Km) has been commissioned.

Augmentation/Improvement of passenger amenities on Indian Railways is a continuous and on-going process. Accordingly, Ministry of Railways has launched Amrit Bharat Station Scheme for redevelopment of stations which envisages development of stations with a long-term approach. It involves preparation of master plans and their implementation in phases to improve the amenities at the stations like improvement of station access, circulating areas, waiting halls, toilets, lift/escalators as necessary, platform surfacing and cover over platform, cleanliness, free Wi-Fi, kiosks for local products through schemes like ‘One Station One Product’, better passenger information systems, executive lounges, nominated spaces for business meetings, landscaping, etc. keeping in view the necessity at each station.

The scheme also envisages improvement of building, integrating the station with both sides of the city, multimodal integration, amenities for Divyangjans, sustainable and environment friendly solutions, provision of ballastless tracks, etc. as per necessity, phasing and feasibility and creation of city centre at the station in the long term. So far, 1337 stations have been identified for development under Amrit Bharat Station Scheme.

In order to ensure safety, Indian Railways continuously upgrades and modernises its signaling system like Electrical/Electronic Interlocking Systems with centralized operation of points and signals, Complete Track Circuiting of stations, Interlocking of Level Crossing Gates (LC) etc. Indian Railways has also gone for implementation of advance technology system "Kavach" as an Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system which required safety certification of highest order.

This information was given by the Union Minister of Railways, Information & Broadcasting and Electronics & Information Technology Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.

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Dharmendra Tewari/Shatrunjay Kumar

 

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