Lok Sabha Question No. 684 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2016-04-27
Subject: Average Speed of Trains
Ministry: RAILWAYS
Asked by: G. HARI, KUNWAR PUSHPENDRA SINGH CHANDEL, MALLIKARJUN  KHARGE

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED  QUESTION  NO. 684 TO  BE  ANSWERED ON 27.04.2016

## AVERAGE SPEED OF TRAINS

684.      Shri G. Hari:

Shri Kunwar Pushpendra Singh Chandel: Shri Mallikarjun Kharge:

Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state:

- (a) the details of the average speed of all passenger and freight trains in the country at present;
- (b) whether the Government proposes to increase the average speed of passenger and freight trains;
- (c) if so, the details thereof;
- (d) whether the Government has a time-bound mechanism to achieve the improvement or increase in speed of the trains and if so, the details thereof; and
- (e) the details of various schemes related to high speed trains?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS

(SHRI MANOJ SINHA)

(a) to (e) A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

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STATEMENT  REFERED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  PARTS  (a)  TO  (e)  OF UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.684 BY SHRI G. HARI,  SHRI  KUNWAR PUSHPENDRA SINGH CHANDEL AND SHRI MALLIKARJUN KHARGE TO  BE  ANSWERED  IN  LOK  SABHA  ON  27.04.2016  REGARDING AVERAGE SPEED OF TRAINS

(a) Average  speed  of  all  passenger  and  freight  trains  in  the country during 2014-15, is given as under :

|   S.No | Type of trains                               |   Average speed ( Km/hour) Broad Gauge |
|--------|----------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------|
|      1 | Mail/Express                                 |                                   50.8 |
|      2 | EMU                                          |                                   45.3 |
|      3 | Ordinary Passenger trains ( including mixed) |                                   36.1 |
|      4 | Freight ( All traction )                     |                                   24.2 |

- (b) &  (c  )  Yes,  Madam.    Recently,  a  specific  Directorate  i.e. Mobility  Directorate  has  been  set  up  of  which  one  of  the primary  objectives  is  to  initiate  measures  for  increasing  the speed of  trains.    Besides,  in  Railway  Budget  2016-17,  a  new category  of  train  service  for  the  reserved  passengers  'Tejas' has been announced with the speed of 130 KMPH and above.

(d )& (e) 'Mission Raftar' declared in the Railway Budget 201617  entails  doubling  of  average  speed  of  freight  trains  and increasing the average speed of superfast Mail/Express trains by 25 KMPH in the next five years.

Nine corridors for raising the speed of passenger trains to  160/200  KMPH  have  been  identified.  The  details  of  these corridors  are  (i)  Delhi-Agra  (ii)  Delhi-  Chandigarh  (iii)  DelhiKanpur (iv) Nagpur-Bilaspur (v) Chennai-Bengaluru-Mysore (vi) Mumbai-Goa (vii) Mumbai-Ahmedabad (viii) Chennai-Hyderabad, and  (ix) Nagpur-Secunderabad.

Further, under the Quadrilateral network, 6 more corridors  have  been  identified  for  feasibility  studies  for  high speed  rail  connectivity  to  the  four  major  metros  and  growth centers  of  the  country.    These  are  Delhi-Mumbai,  MumbaiChennai,  Chennai-Kolkata,  Kolkata-Delhi,  Delhi-Chennai  and Mumbai-Kolkata.

However,  due  to  the  high  cost  of  the  high  speed  rail projects,  at  this  stage,  only  Mumbai-Ahmedabad  high  speed rail project has been approved in December, 2015, for implementation.

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