Railway rolls out ₹13,500-cr 100-day action plan

In a bid to cut commuting time on the Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah rail lines, the Indian Railways rolled out its 100-day action plan to increase speeds of trains to 160 km/h on these routes by strengthening the lines. The ₹13,500 crore proposal, approved by the Railway Minister, will reduce travel time to 12 hours and 10 hours, respectively, as compared to the current 17 and 15.5 hours. Currently, the maximum speed on these routes, which account for 30 percent of passenger and 20 percent of freight traffic, is 130 kmh. The proposal envisages that in the next 100 days, approval should be obtained and the plan is being sent to the Cabinet Committee for Economic Affairs (CCEA). The estimated cost of upgradation on the 1,525-km New Delhi-Howrah route will be ₹6,684 crore and on the 1,483-km New Delhi-Mumbai route it will be ₹6,806 crore.