Soon you can travel from Delhi to Mumbai in just 10 hours!

In an attempt to cut down the travel time between the biggest two Indian cities, Delhi and Mumbai, Indian Railways has decided to upgrade the existing New Delhi-Mumbai route. If all goes well, travelling between the country's national capital and financial capital only take 10 hours by train - in effect making it an overnight journey.

The current speed limit for the existing New Delhi-Mumbai and New Delhi-Howrah routes is set at 130 kmph. However, the rail corporation is upgrading the route to ensure that the trains can attain a maximum speed of 160 km per hour. 

Replying to a question, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal recently made the announcement about upgrading the rail route. He informed the parliament in a written reply that last year, in the month of August, the Modi government had sanctioned two works for raising of speed to 160 km per hour on the existing New Delhi-Mumbai (including Vadodara-Ahmedabad) route, as well as New Delhi-Howrah (including Kanpur–Lucknow) route.

As per Goyal,  the works for raising of speed to 160 km per hour on existing Indian Railways’ New Delhi-Mumbai route and New Delhi-Howrah route were sanctioned at a cost of ₹6,806 crores and ₹6,685 crores respectively last year. 

The site survey consisting of a feasibility study of these two railway projects has already been completed. Now, the government is preparing a detailed estimate of the projects, based on actual requirement at the site.

He also said that for the project to come to life, the government will require at least four more years. The work to raise the speed to 160 km per hour on New Delhi-Mumbai and New Delhi-Howrah routes will be completed within four years only if there are no hurdles regarding statutory clearances and availability of funds.

Earlier, last month, the Western Railway (WR) had received the sanction to run trains at a higher speed limit. Due to which, now WR can run trains at 130 kmph on the 694 km-stretch between Virar and Nagda instead of the previous 110 kmph limit. 

With the limit extended, the trains on the Mumbai-Gujarat-Delhi route are expected to gain speed, thus, cutting down the travel time by 30 minutes to 60 minutes.