High speed / Semi-High speed rail projects of Indian Railways
- Thread starter Ashwin
- Start date
Time to move on to Train 20 & Train 22 now. We can't bask in the glory of a singular success that ICF Chennai has been responsible for.
Just as the Tejas heralded the coming of age of the Indian aerospace eco system which is rightly being nurtured thru multiple projects like AMCA Mk-2 TEDBF etc, it's time to announce new projects to be undertaken by ICF & other locomotive building organizations within India.
GoI needs to nurture this industry & in order to do that they need to plan & announce targets like replacement of all locomotive based passenger trains with train sets by say 2042. Come up with a lower threshold speed of say 150 kms/hr & determine that every passenger train service by say 2038-40 needs to comply with it. Go in for incremental increase in train speeds with new iterations like say 200 kms/ hr as upper speed limit for Train 20 & 225 kms/hr for Train 22 & so on while ensuring the technology is by & large compatible with the current layout of tracks not requiring major modifications.
Just some top of the head suggestions I could think of early in the day.
It is a PMO driven project
So when PMO brings out his
" AATM NIRBHAR Baton " ; all departments and their shenanigans fall in line
All those Vigilance Enquires were nothing but Corporate Rivalries
MNCs wanted to scuttle it because
MEDHA , the Indian Company is the Biggest beneficiary of this project
For the Rajdhani Rakes we are currently trying to upgrade them with Tejas rakes. Seems T20 is some time away.
I doubt whether there's a project Train on 20 too , tbh . I've not seen any reports in the MSM on it . Neither anything on SM .
Long range trains where sleeper rakes were required, the thing is that we are producing locomotives at such a high rate that power per ton will not be a big issue anymore.
On technology side, the project is still very much alive.
But there is no urgency as to implement it asap.
Believe that project was put on hold as soon as Mr. Mani was charged with Dept enquiry. But again T20 is jus sleeper version of T18 train. Shouldn't be challenging.
ICF Chennai should.be made to concentrate on R&D and new projects alone. After that tot to other factories. We could slowly build a indigenous modern railway system in India.. Next to concentrate is local signalling systems which is dominated by Siemens, Thales or Alstom.
That's the reason why we need to develop Train 20 reaching top speeds of 200 kmph . Delhi Mumbai rail route is 1200 kms. With stoppages & technical halts it'd take 7-8 hrs to reach eliminating the need for sleeper rakes in day journey.
Locomotives can be used for night journey. Further sleeper train sets ought to be designed too to haul more tonnage.
I'm referring to a long term plan of 20-25 yrs starting now. I don't see any mutual conflict. Most of those trains which'd become redundant by train sets can be deployed to travel newly formed services or for hauling freight.
I very much doubt it unless you've anything to prove my doubts wrong.
That's what I pointing out to
I thought this was a good time to remind interested people in the book Mr Sundanshu Mani authored on the trials & travails of building the Train 18 & what the team including himself personally had to undergo during development but particularly in it's aftermath .
I purchased this book a few months ago & went thru the first few chapters which I found very interesting but got up in other work & had to abandon my reading mid way. This is an excellent opportunity to get back to completing it.
Btw for the price ( paperback ) The book's a real steal. I've never come across better binding, paper quality, printing & photographs depicted with as much clarity in Indian published books as I've in this one. If I have , it costs an arm & leg.
My Train 18 Story Amazon.in: Buy My Train 18 Story Book Online at Low Prices in India | My Train 18 Story Reviews & Ratings
Leave aside any sense of reward, even public acknowledgement by the GoI or by the IR of his contribution hasn't been made.
Further, It's the measure of a man that he refuses to use the occasion to profit from it by publicising his book on Twitter as probably anybody else in his place would have done.
Apparently Gujarat has completed 100% acquisition of land for the Bullet Train project whereas ( surprise surprise ) Maharashtra has acquired 76% of the land. Hopefully the rest will be acquired this calendar year & construction commences in Maharashtra .
High Speed Rail Corridors
Posted On: 11 FEB 2022 2:45PM by PIB Delhi
Presently, the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail is the only sanctioned High Speed Rail project in the Country being executed with technical & financial assistance of Government of Japan. The current status of Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail (MAHSR) Project is as under:-
All Statutory Clearances relating to wildlife, Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) and Forest clearance have been obtained.
Out of total land requirement of approx. 1396 ha., about 1193 ha. Land has been acquired.
The entire project has been divided into 27 Contract packages. At present, 12 packages have been awarded, 3 are under evaluation and Tenders has been invited for 4 packages.
Out of total 352 KM length in Gujarat and Dadra & Nagar Haveli (DNH), civil works in 342 KM length have started.
The anticipated cost increase and timeline can be fully ascertained only after completion of land acquisition and finalisation of all contracts.
Further, the Ministry of Railways (MoR) has decided to undertake survey and prepare the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for seven High Speed Rail Corridors as under:-
Delhi - Varanasi.
Delhi - Amritsar.
Delhi - Ahmedabad.
Mumbai - Nagpur.
Mumbai - Hyderabad.
Chennai - Bangalore - Mysore.
Varanasi – Howrah.
This information was given by the Minister of Railways, Communications and Electronic & Information Technology, Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.
Posted On: 11 FEB 2022 2:45PM by PIB Delhi
Presently, the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail is the only sanctioned High Speed Rail project in the Country being executed with technical & financial assistance of Government of Japan. The current status of Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail (MAHSR) Project is as under:-
All Statutory Clearances relating to wildlife, Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) and Forest clearance have been obtained.
Out of total land requirement of approx. 1396 ha., about 1193 ha. Land has been acquired.
The entire project has been divided into 27 Contract packages. At present, 12 packages have been awarded, 3 are under evaluation and Tenders has been invited for 4 packages.
Out of total 352 KM length in Gujarat and Dadra & Nagar Haveli (DNH), civil works in 342 KM length have started.
The anticipated cost increase and timeline can be fully ascertained only after completion of land acquisition and finalisation of all contracts.
Further, the Ministry of Railways (MoR) has decided to undertake survey and prepare the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for seven High Speed Rail Corridors as under:-
Delhi - Varanasi.
Delhi - Amritsar.
Delhi - Ahmedabad.
Mumbai - Nagpur.
Mumbai - Hyderabad.
Chennai - Bangalore - Mysore.
Varanasi – Howrah.
This information was given by the Minister of Railways, Communications and Electronic & Information Technology, Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.
One more route is very important but missing. Bangalore to Hyderabad.
None of this really matters. Only one or two of these will be picked up for implementation in this decade. Probably, Chennai - Bangalore, and Delhi - Varanasi.
Apparently Vande Bharat is launching a tender for train sets with sleepers in them as well . I wonder if this is possible w/o development of a prototype & testing. I recall Sudhanshu Mani having mentioned this necessity before getting into production. Thus far there's been no news in the public domain w.r.t such development. @Ankit Kumar
Hm, this is indeed intersting. Saw this on twitter too.
But as fas as I can say, the target as of now is to replace shatabdi/Jan Shatabdi trains. Multiple rakes of VB will be needed. Let's wait. Once this is 75-80% complete then sleeper class will be the next step for sure.
On the contrary as per Sudhanshu Mani the distribution between sleepers & chair cars in VB is likely to be 65:35 in favour of the former. It could go upto 70% . A major reason for this is though the trains are geared up for 180 kmph in reality they can't go at an average speed of above 160 kmph but w/o upgradation of the tracks in all probability they'd be reduced to speeds of 100-120 kmph at the most.
In the interim if they're planning on replacing Rajdhanis & Durontos on long distance routes like Mum Del or Del Kol they've no choice but to go in for sleepers till such time as those tracks are upgraded to get avg speeds > 150 kmph.