Railway ministry working on tech to take train speeds to over 600 kmph

Railway minister Suresh Prabhu says the government is working with companies like Hyperloop to increase the speed of trains to more than 600 km per hour

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A file photo of railway minister Suresh Prabhu. Photo: Priyanka Parashar/Mint

New Delhi: Union minister Suresh Prabhu on Friday said the government’s premier think tank NITI Aayog had approved the ministry’s Rs18,000 crore proposal to increase speeds of the Gatiman Express on the two busiest corridors, Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Kolkata. Prabhu also said the government is working on increasing train speeds to more than 600km per hour.

With this approval, the speed of the Gatiman Express would increase to 200km per hour, the minister said at an event organised by industry chamber ASSOCHAM. “You can yourself imagine how much travelling time this will save.”

Sharing plans for the future, Prabhu said the government had six-eight months ago called major technology developers working on increasing train speeds.

“We already had about 6-8 months ago, a programme in which we called all the major technology developers who had not yet fully developed, commercialized the technology which can take the speed of railways to more than 600 kmph and we are already working with them, companies like Hyperloop,” said Prabhu.

Safety was also an important concern and Indian railways was planning to use self-propelled coaches that can detect rail fractures through ultrasonic technology, the minister added.