Railways working on raising speed of trains: Gohain

The government is working to increase the speed of trains under its "Mission Raftar", Minister of State for Railways Rajen Gohain informed Parliament on Wednesday.

"The Railways has in its 2016-17 budget announced the Mission Raftar," Gohain said in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha.

"The Mission Raftar envisages the target of doubling the average speed of freight trains and increasing the average speed of all passenger trains by 25 kmph in the next five years," Gohain informed the lower house.

Elaborating on the initiatives that thed Railways has taken to increase the speed of trains, Gohain said: "The Railways has introduced Gatiman Express at 160 kmph from Hazrat Nizamuddin to Agra Cantt on April 5 this year."

The feasibility study of Chennai-Bengaluru-Mysore Corridor for raising the speed of passenger trains to 160 kmph has been entrusted to China Railway.

"...the feasibility-cum-implementation study of New Delhi-Chandigarh corridor for raising the speed of passenger trains to 200 kmph on 50:50 per cent cost sharing basis has been entrusted to French Railway," the minister said.

Pointing out at the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed with the Russian Railways on October 15 this year, Gohain said: "The railways has signed an MoU for feasibility-cum-implementation study of Nagpur-Secunderabad Corridor for raising the speed of passenger trains to 200 kmph."

--IANS

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