Question : Mission Raftaar

(a) whether the Indian Railways is planning to increase the maximum speed of passenger and freight trains to give boost to the project of ‘Mission Raftaar’ and if so, the details thereof;

(b) whether the Government has also approved the proposal for increasing the speed of the Delhi-Howrah route to 160 kmph and if so, the details thereof;

(c) whether the Indian Railways is working to cover the complete golden quadrilateral and diagonals that consist of 16% of its total network, but account for 52% of total passenger traffic and 58% of total freight traffic;

(d) if so, the details thereof; and

(e) the other steps taken/being taken to complete the said projects within the stipulated timeframe?

MINISTER OF RAILWAYS AND COMMERCE & INDUSTRY
(SHRI PIYUSH GOYAL)

(a): Yes, Sir. The “Mission Raftaar” announced in the Railway Budget 2016-17 envisages improving of average speeds of passenger and freight trains.

Action Plan for improving mobility and increasing average speed includes removal of speed restrictions, construction of Road Over Bridges (ROBs) and Road Under Bridges (RUBs), right powering of trains and replacement of conventional trains by Main Line Electric Multiple Unit (MEMU) trains and Diesel Electric Multiple Unit (DEMU) trains.
(b) to (e): Yes, Sir. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved two projects for raising of speed to 160 kilometre per hour (kmph) on existing New Delhi- Mumbai (including Vadodara-Ahmedabad) and New Delhi-Howrah (including Kanpur-Lucknow) routes on 5th August, 2019.
Execution of projects being planned simultaneously on entire route length and will be monitored for expeditious completion.
These corridors are part of Golden Quadrilateral and Diagonals of Indian Railways - A network of six routes which consist of 16% of total Indian Railways network, yet carry 52% of total passenger traffic and 58% of total freight traffic carried by Indian Railways.
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