Ambala division seeks railway nod to raise speed of Shatabdi on Chandigarh-Delhi route

Ambala divisional railway manager Dinesh Kumar on Wednesday said: “We have submitted a proposal to the railway headquarters to increase the speed of Shatabdi trains to 130 kmph. We are expecting to increase the speed of trains in the next two months.”

He added that at a speed of 130 kmph, the journey between Delhi and Chandigarh on Shatabdi would be decreased by 20 minutes. “The trains will run at 130kmph between Delhi and Ambala only. Later, once the doubling work of the tracks between Dapper (near Ambala) and Chandigarh is completed, the Shatabdi trains would run at 130 kmph between Ambala and Chandigarh as well,” said Kumar.

Three Shatabdi trains ply between Chandigarh-New Delhi-Chandigarh per day and the existing speed of each train is 110 kmph. The approx travel time from on a Shatabdi train from Delhi to Chandigarh is less than four hours.

Recently, the Northern Railways has increased the speed of Amritsar-Shatabdi to 130 kmph. Railway officials said they are upgrading the railway tracks in the country that would help increase the speed of many trains in the future.

The railways has also introduced premier Tejas trains on Delhi-Chandigarh route and according to the officials, the duration from the city to Delhi on this train would be around three hours.

The railway officials said they take all the necessary measures to ensure the safety of all trains that run at higher speed.

“The trains undergo several tests before they are introduced on the tracks. We take several measures to ensure that the trains run smoothly at higher speed,” Northern Railways chief public relations officer Neeraj Sharma said. He added that several trains in the country are running at 160 kmph.