Railways start work on upgrading tracks to cater to high speed trains

Ludhiana: Following the development model of Indian railways to increase the speed of all long distance passengers trains by 25km per hour before 2020, Northern Railway has begun the work of upgrading the railway tracks at the city railway station here.
Under this development project, the engineering department of the railways has already laid down new tracks on cemented platforms to ensure safety of fast moving trains during the peak hours of rush. The development project will prove a boon for all long distance trains which are linked up with advanced LHB (Linke Hofmann Busch) coaches as these coaches have higher carrying capacity and speed potential and better safety feature. The authorities are also working in the direction of upgrading the technologies of signal and traffic department for smooth function of all trains with high speed.
In addition to this high speed project, northern railway authorities have started constructing a wall along the railway tracks in the Dhandari-Sahnewal section as they have to plug the entry points along the tracks till the end of 2020 to prevent track crossings. It’s also a part of the railway ministry initiative to increase the speed limit of speed as its most densely populated section along the tracks in Ludhiana, where the number of persons and cattle cross the tracks, causing huge loss to the railway infrastructure after being run over by several trains.
With the completion of the much needed development project across the Northern Railway, the trains running between Ludhiana to national capital (New Delhi) will increase their speed by 30km per hour and moves with a total speed of 140km per hour instead of 110km per hour, the present speed of the trains.
As per the information gathered from the railway board, the prominent trains which will be benefiting under this initiative are Rajdhani Express, Shatabdi Express, Shane-e Punjab Express, Sawaraj Express and Amritsar-Delhi Superfast Express, Sampark Kranti Express, Puja Express, Udhampur Express, Shiv Skati Express and Amritsar-Nanded Express.
Sources in the railway department said that, “At present, most of super-fast trains running between the Ludhiana-Delhi are taking more than four hours to complete the journey of 325km with the minimum speed of 110km per hour but after completion of all required development projects, the train timing will be reduced by thirty to forty minutes and trains will start reaching their destination in maximum time of three and a half hours.”
Sources further said that train’s up to Jammu Tawi and Katra would run at a higher speed up to Ludhiana only because the rail tracks on the remaining section are not technically fit for high-speed running. As per the railways, the new generation LHB coaches were designed to run at a speed of up to 160 to 200 kmph and these had already been tested from a safety aspect up to a maximum speed of 180kmph, they said.
Giving more information on this, Tarun Kumar, Ludhiana station director, said that, “The railway tracks between the Ludhiana- New Delhi have been upgraded to check on the friction of high speed train. Northern Railway authorities have been planning to increase the speed of all prominent trains by 30km per hour and reach the speed of 140km per hour.”
On the other hand, local businessmen are looking up to the decision of the northern railway to increase the speed of frequent running trains and waiting for the early implementation of policy.
Rajwinder Sharma, a local cycle parts manufacturer, said, “It’s the need of the hour to run a few high speed trains between New Delhi to Ludhiana as rush of frequent passengers have increased to a great extent in the recent past years. It will help businessmen a lot while expanding their business to other cities of the country easily. Moreover, railways should run high speed freight trains to and from Ludhiana as it will help in faster movement of goods between Ludhiana and other cities of India,” some businessmen said.