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India seems to be on a roll when it comes to the development of the railway infrastructure. We have a bullet train under way between Ahmedabad and Mumbai, a train that will connect India to Nepal, another project that will lead us straight to Andamans and now we have India’s first engineless train, Train 18 that has successfully completed its trial.
However, are our railway tracks solid enough to handle such fast speeding trains? The Hindustan Times reported that only 0.3% of India’s railway tracks were fit enough to handle trains running at the speed of up to 160 km per hour, according to an assessment made in an internal document.
The assessment has come to light when Train 18 completed its first trial run with flying colours. The train, set to replace Shatabdi Express, ran at 115 km per hour on tracks in Moradabad division of Northern Railway.
Photo: AP
Many of the trains that run in India come under the Diesel Electrical Multiple Unit (DEMU) which has a maximum speed of 96 kmph. To pave way for high-speed, bullet trains we need an upgradation in our railway tracks also.
The second trial run for Train18 will be conducted in Kota division where the train will be tested at 160 km per hour, which is its designated speed.
The Rs 18,000 crore project will include construction of walls along the corridors, removal of level crossings and changing train engines and introducing automatic train protection devices.
Four corridors that are spread over an area of 10,000 km including the Chennai-Delhi, Howrah-Mumbai, Mumbai-Chennai, and Howrah-Chennai will also need to be made fit for 160 kmph rail operations.
