Speed up, Shatabdi journey to be 25 minutes shorter

Aarti Kapur 

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 12 

The much-awaited demand to increase the speed of Shatabdi Express between Chandigarh and Delhi has been approved by the Commission of Railway Safety (CRS). This will reduce the travelling time to three-and-a-half hour instead of four hours for passengers plying between the two stations. The CRS communicated that the approval had been given to increase the speed of Shatabdi from 110 km per hour to 130 km per hour between the Delhi-Ambala-Ludhiana route. This will cut the travelling time by 20 to 25 minutes on an average.

Ambala Divisional Railway Manager Dinesh Kumar confirmed that the approval had been given by the CRS and soon the Railway Board would make the final announcement about the execution of the revised speed. He said the permission had been given between the Delhi and Ambala stretch, which will cut the travelling time by 20 to 25 minutes. 

He said the formal announcement about the revised speed would be made in July when the new timetable was released after which it would be implemented by the division.

At present, three Shatabdis are plying from the city to New Delhi and vice versa at the speed of 110 km per hour  taking four hours and five minutes to complete the journey. Officials said even though the work of semi-high speed project on this route was in process, yet it would take a long time for it to be completed, so the immediate decision to increase the speed of the Shatabdis would benefit the commuters.