NEW DELHI: Come November and you can travel to Agra, the city of Taj Mahal, by train in just 90 minutes, cutting the journey time by 30 minutes at least.
This has been made possible as the railways successfully conducted the trial run of the country’s fastest train that moves at a speed of 160 kms per hour.
Its commercial operation is expected to begin in November, railway officials said.
So far, Delhi-Bhopal Shatabdi was the fastest train with a speed of 150 kmph.
The trial run of the ‘semi high-speed train’ was conducted on a 10-coach train. It left New Delhi station at 11.15 am and reached Agra about 99 minutes later.
However, from Nizamuddin station, where it will actually originate during commercial operations, the train took 90 minutes, Deputy Regional Manager (DRM) Delhi Division Anurag Sachan said.
The time taken currently by the Shatabdi train between Delhi and Agra is 120 minutes.
A journey by road via the Yamuna expressway takes two hours between Delhi and Agra.
After the Delhi-Agra service, Railways are expected to run similar high speed trains on Delhi-Kanpur and Delhi-Chandigarh sections.
“The trial run was conducted successfully and we hope to start commercial service by November,” said Sachan.
There are about 16 speed restriction areas and curves on the Delhi-Agra route which had been upgraded to improve the speed.
The train would come as a boon for tourists visiting Taj Mahal as the travel time between Delhi and Agra will come down by half-an-hour from the current level.
The public transporter is using its own resources to make operational the semi-high speed train – the first of its kind in the railways.
It is estimated that a cost of Rs 15 crore would be incurred to make the track ready for the semi-high speed train, said a senior Railway Ministry official involved with the project.
There will be fencing for a stretch of 27-km along the track between Delhi and Agra to prevent obstruction and ensure speed. -PTI
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