In a significant development, the Western Railway (WR) will boost the speed of all its trains that run on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad route from 130kmph to 160kmph from August 15. These trains include Vande Bharat, Shatabdi, IRCTC Tejas, Double Decker and Delhi-Mumbai Rajdhani among others.
To attain faster speed, substantial track repairs, overhead wiring improvements, and the installation of Kavach technology were completed.
The Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) will perform inspections in July to authorise the speed upgrade, which is required prior to implementation.
For this, the Railway Board has directed divisional railway managers to complete any outstanding tasks by June 30, including mandatory track blocks.
As per reports, key infrastructure enhancements have included barricade barriers along 565km of track, track renovations, signalling improvements on 126 railway bridges, and overhead wire installations. Furthermore, the deployment of Kavach technology and higher sleeper density aim to overcome the speed-related issues.
The trains will move at 160kmph between Virar and Surat, then to Ahmedabad. Meanwhile, the speed limit will be 100kmph from Mumbai Central to Borivali and 110kmph between Borivali and Virar.
This will aim to reduce passenger journey times. For example, the Vande Bharat Express, which currently takes 5.25 hours, will run 4.40 hours at 160kmph. Similarly, the Shatabdi Express will reduce travel time from 5.50 to 4.50 hours, the IRCTC Tejas Express from 6.25 to 5.50 hours, the Double Decker from 6.55 to 6.15 hours, and the Mumbai-Delhi Rajdhani from 15.32 to 12 hours.