Piyush Goyal gives fuel to superfast trains to Delhi, Ahmedabad

Piyush Goyal

Bid farewell to crumbling road and foot overbridges in Mumbai and say hello to superfast long-distance trains as well as several new rail lines and terminuses, with the interim budget presented by Piyush Goyal, Union Minister for Finance and Railways.

Money has been set aside with the goal of increasing the speed on the New Delhi-Mumbai route to 160-200 kmph, making the journey possible in 12 hours. In addition, the budget has also allocated R5 crore to set up maintenance depots for trainsets at Virar. "The only trainset that the Indian Railways has as of now is Train 18. There are future plans to run this swanky train on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad sector, and these could be their preparatory works," said a senior railway official, adding that Train 18 is currently the fastest train in the country, running at 160 kmph on the Varanasi-Delhi route.

The minister was also quick to allocate Rs 50 crore to the massive Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP) 3A even before it has received final approvals. This will include the Kalwa-Airoli project and several new corridors and trains. MUTP 2 and 3 have also been granted Rs 244.92 crore and Rs 283.78 crore respectively.

The budget also provided for new rail terminuses at Jogeshwari and Panvel, apart from allocating a large amount of money for the replacement of ageing ROBs and FOBs.

Rs 7,672 crore
Funds for Central Railway

Rs 6,128 crore
Funds for Western Railway

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