The Western Railway (WR) would be executing works worth ₹4,011 crore to convert the Mumbai-Delhi line into a semi-high speed corridor allowing trains to run at speeds of up to 160 km per hour. The 1,384-km corridor now takes 15.5 hours to cover and Mission Raftar aims to reduce it to 12 hours.
“The detailed estimate for the work on the WR portion is ₹4,011 crore. This includes upgrading tracks, bridges, signalling and overhead equipment installations and the removal of some permanent speed restrictions. A combined estimate for the entire project is being prepared and will be finalised soon,” Ravinder Bhakar, chief public relations officer, WR, said.
In the WR’s proposal, civil works amount to ₹1,933 crore, of which ₹660 crore will go towards building boundary walls and fencing of the corridor. “A semi-high speed rail network needs a high factor of safety from trespassing and cattle being run over. Not only the life of people trespassing or livestock but also the passengers aboard the train are put at risk,” a railway official said.
The other major civil work includes closing of level crossing gates by providing road overbridges and subways, which would cost around ₹4,400 crore and will be financed under a separate budgetary head. The bridge over Vaitarna creek in Palghar will be replaced at a cost of ₹330 crore.
The other major expenses are in the electrical works, which are expected to cost ₹1,237 crore and include critical upgrades to the current system. “To cater to high speeds, we will need to reduce the span of the overhead equipment structures. Old redundant structures will need to be dismantled. The other major cost would be another feeder line across the entire corridor to cater to the high power requirement of high speed trains,” a senior railway official said. The other costs would be to upgrade the signalling systems across the corridor to facilitate semi-high speeds.
WR officials, however, said speeds in the suburban sections of Mumbai would continue to run at the current maximum speed of 110 km per hour due to operational constraints. “Since long-distance trains share space with local trains, it is not feasible to run them at these speeds,” a senior railway official said.
Coordinating zone
The entire project is expected to cost ₹10,070 crore for which the Railway Board has allocated ₹1,000 for 2020-21. The project is expected to be financed through extra budgetary resources. There are four railways zones involved in the project — Northern Railway, North Central Railway, West Central Railway and WR.
The Railway Board has nominated WR as the coordinating zone for getting the combined cost sanctioned.