Railways plans faster Delhi-Mumbai Rajdhanis, Shatabdis and Durontos

NEW DELHI: The travel time between Delhi and Mumbai could soon be cut by three hours as the Railways is working to run the elite Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto trains at speeds of 160-200 km per hour. This means the 17-hour journey between the two metros will be down to 14 hours while travel time between Delhi and Chandigarh will be reduced by an hour.

With the Railways unable to fund capital-intensive bullet trains, the state-owned transporter is working on operating semi-high speed trains with marginal improvisation to existing infrastructure.

“A large amount of money is required to achieve speeds of over 300 kmph. We have decided to run trains at 160-200 kmph as the cost will be much lower,” Railway Board chairman Arunendra Kumar said.

The maximum speed of Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto trains now range between 130-150 kmph.