New Delhi: Passengers travelling between Delhi-Mumbai on Rajdhani train can reach their destination faster than earlier. Western Railways has confirmed that the travel time on the Delhi-Mumbai route will be reduced by over 5 hours since Rajdhani train speed will be hiked from 130 kmh to 160 kmh.

By increasing the speed the travel time between Delhi-Mumbai will be reduced to 10 hours as compared to the current 15.5 hours.

“After approval of the Central Govt, Mumbai – Delhi route will be upgraded to run Rajdhani Express at 160 kmph to cut the travel time to nearly 10 hrs, under #MissionRaftaar,” the Western Railways has tweeted.

In a bid to reduce travel time, the Indian Railways, under its 100-day action plan, envisaged reducing the travel time on the Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah routes.

‘Mission Raftaar’ was first announced in the Railway Budget 2016-17. The mission envisages a target of doubling of average speed of freight trains and increasing the average speed of all non-suburban passenger trains by 25 kmph in the next 5 years.

Principal routes that were identified for raising of speed under Mission Raftaar comprised six routes on Golden Quadrilateral and diagonals namely, Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Howrah, Howrah- Chennai, Chennai- Mumbai, Delhi-Chennai and Howrah-Mumbai.

These six routes carry 58 per cent of freight traffic and 52 per cent of coaching traffic with a share of only 16 per cent of the network. Golden Quadrilaterals and its Diagonal routes have been prioritized for replacement of loco hauled short distance passenger trains by MEMUs/DEMUs having better acceleration and deceleration characteristics for fast pickup and braking.