Indian Railways to construct elevated high-speed track from Delhi to Jaipur, Infra News, ET Infra

Indian Railways is planning to construct an elevated corridor between Delhi Cantonment and Jaipur to run semi-high speed that run at 200-220 kmph. The proposal earlier was to build the elevated stretch up to Rewari in Haryana and now the national transporter is looking at whether this can be extended up to Jaipur.

Vande Bharat trains will be upgraded to run at 220 kmph in the next couple of years, which would be ideal for faster inter-city rail connectivity. Northern Railways has already drawn up a detailed plan, which would soon be placed before the Railway Board for approval, sources said.

“It was found feasible to have an elevated track between Delhi and Rewari as there is adequate land available. Since we run regular suburban local trains between Delhi and Rewari, this impacts running of goods trains and other long distance passenger trains. Construction of elevated track will help us in segregation of trains that can take the elevated stretch,” said an official. This will reduce congestion on the existing corridor and reduce the travel time between Delhi and Jaipur.

Between October 1, 2022, and January 31, 2023, Vande Bharat carried 1.49 lakh passengers to Gujarat and 1.51 lakh towards Mumbai with an occupancy rate above 125 per cent. In the same period, Shatabdi Express handled 1.7 lakh passengers to Gujarat and 1.75 lakh in the Mumbai direction. Vande Bharat has registered a cumulative revenue of more than INR 30 crore on this route while Shatabdi clocked approximately INR 36 crore.

Corroborating the Railways’ plan, Union minister and Gurgaon MP Rao Inderjit Singh said because of the new plan, the proposed upgradation of Gurgaon railway station is being redesigned. He said though the original plan was to complete the tendering process by March, but because of the change in plan, work on redesigning the station has started.

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had flagged construction of elevated tracks as an option for running faster passenger trains in February 2022. He had said many countries have elevated networks, including in Japan, Korea, Europe, Taiwan and China.

The railway ministry has also announced introduction of Vande Metro trains, which will operate like shuttle trains on intercity stretches of around 100 km. Construction of elevated tracks on the highly congested railway corridors can prove to be a big boon for commuters and also for faster movement of freight to the consumption centres.