Delhi’s connectivity to its neighbouring cities is set to improve, with the railways announcing three semi-bullet or high speed trains in the Rail Budget, announced on Tuesday. Of the nine semi-bullet trains announced in the budget, three trains are Delhi-bound connecting cities like Agra, Chandigarh and Kanpur to the national Capital. These high speed trains would run at the speed of 160 to 200 km per hour and will complete the journey in less than two hours which usually takes three to seven hours. In addition to this, the railways have announced 10 new Delhi-bound trains, besides extending the run of three existing trains.
Union Rail Minister Minister DV Sadananda Gowda, in his budget speech said, semi-bullet trains would be introduced on Delhi-Agra, Delhi-Kanpur and Delhi-Chandigarh routes. While the existing mail/express trains between Delhi and Agra — which usually takes three to four hours to cover a distance of 195 km or 266 km between New Delhi and Chandigarh — is normally travelled in four to six hours. Similarly, it takes close to eight hours to cover the distance of 440 km between Delhi and Kanpur by mail/express trains. Rajdhani and Shatabdi Express trains on this section take slightly less than five hours to complete the journey. However, with introduction of the high speed trains, the same distance can be covered in nearly two hours.
The trial run for country’s first semi-bullet train on Delhi-Agra corridor was successfully conducted recently wherein the train took 89 minutes to complete the journey. The high speed trains are likely to be introduced into regular service from November this year. It may be noted that the three routes identified for operation of high speed trains are the busiest of rail routes
surrounding the national Capital and a large number of daily commuters particularly the office-goers use the train services. Meanwhile, 10 new trains were also announced in the budget for Delhi division of the Northern Railways.These include one Jansadharan Express to Saharsa in Bihar, two premium trains to Mumbai and Secunderabad and three AC special trains to cities like Vijaywada, Naharlagun and Pune.Three other trains have been announced from Delhi to Varanasi, Bathinda and Gorakhpur.