The Railway Board has asked Indian Railways zones to prepare Detailed Project Reports for upgrading of several routes to 160 kmph. The reports are to be submitted within two months.
Indian Railways plans to raise speeds on important routes to 160 kmph over the next few years. 160 kmph upgrade on the Mumbai – Delhi and Delhi – Howrah routes was sanctioned in the financial year 2017-18. Work is currently underway and is expected to be complete between 2023 and 2024.
Over the past three years, maximum speeds on several sections of the Golden Quadrilateral and the Golden Diagonal were raised to 130 kmph from the earlier 110 kmph.
The Railway Board now wants to prepare DPRs for raising speeds on several other routes.
Routes Identified for 160 kmph Upgrade Detailed Project Report
| Route Planned for 160 kmph | Length (km) | Zone Responsible for DPR |
| Mumbai – Howrah (Kolkata) | 1,965 | South East Central Railway |
| Mumbai – Chennai | 1,276 | Central Railway |
| Chennai – Howrah (Kolkata) | 1,652 | East Coast Railway |
| Chennai – Bengaluru | 362 | Southern Railway |
| Chennai – Delhi | 2,164 | North Central Railway |
| Bengaluru – Hyderabad | 632 | South Central Railway |
| Chennai – Hyderabad | 715 | South Central Railway |
| Howrah (Kolkata) – Puri | 502 | East Coast Railway |
| Mumbai – Delhi | 1,384 | Not Applicable (Work underway) |
| Delhi – Howrah (Kolkata) | 1.446 | Not Applicable (Work underway) |
The Howrah – Puri and the Howrah – Chennai routes overlap between Howrah and Khurda Road – a distance of approximately 458 kilometres. Similar other overlaps exist in the list of identified routes. This will reduce the total length of route planned for 160 kmph significantly.
A target date for the 160 kmph upgrade project has not yet been declared.
For every route, a zone has been nominated the nodal zone and will be responsible for the preparation of the DPR. However, the Board has restricted outsourcing of the DPR preparation work to only government organizations.
This speed is nothing when compared to rail speeds in other European countries. However, it would be better if they target to achieve paermissible speeds atleast up to 200 Kmph which is the maximum speed achievable by Vande Bharat trains. Would railpost help in sending this as a request to Rail Ministry? Thanking you.