GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS
LOK SABHA
UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1838
TO BE ANSWERED ON 30.07.2025
‘MISSION RAFTAAR’ SCHEME
1838. SHRI BIDYUT BARAN MAHATO:
Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state:
(a) the objectives and achievements of the ‘Mission Raftaar’ scheme to
enhance average train speeds for both passenger and freight services.
(b) the infrastructure improvements made...
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1838 TO BE ANSWERED ON 30.07.2025 ‘MISSION RAFTAAR’ SCHEME
1838. SHRI BIDYUT BARAN MAHATO:
Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state:
(a) the objectives and achievements of the ‘Mission Raftaar’ scheme to enhance average train speeds for both passenger and freight services.
(b) the infrastructure improvements made under this mission, including track doubling, electrification and signalling upgrades; and
(c) whether any third-party evaluation have been carried out to assess the impact of the scheme and if so, the details and the outcomes of such reviews? ANSWER MINISTER OF RAILWAYS, INFORMATION & BROADCASTING AND ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI ASHWINI VAISHNAW)
(a) to (c) Mission Raftaar was announced in the Railway Budget 2016-17 with the target of increasing the average speed of freight and superfast mail/express trains. Speeding up of trains is a constant endeavor and a continuous process which is dependent upon upgradation of tracks, signaling system, OHE, high powered locos, modern coaches etc.
The medium-term and long-term plans to achieve the Mission include infrastructure improvement i.e. construction of 3rd line, 4th line, providing bypasses, rail flyovers, right powering of trains, replacement of conventionalloco hauled trains by MEMUs, time tabling changes, modification of 1x25 KV traction system to 2x25 KV traction system etc.
Upgradation and improvement of railway tracks on Indian Railways to increase the speed potential have been carried out in a big way during last 10 years. The measures for track upgradation include use of 60 kg rails, wider base concrete sleepers, thick web switches, longer rail panels, H Beam sleepers, modern track renewal and maintenance machines etc.
As a result of above measures, there has been significant increase in speed potential of the tracks. The details of speed potential of railway tracks during 2014 vis a vis 2025 are as under.
2014 2025 Sectional Speed (kmph) Track Km % Track Km % < 110 47,897 60.4 22,862 21.6 110-130 26,409 33.3 59,800 56.6 130 & above 5,036 6.3 23,010 21.8 Total 79,342 100 1,05,672 100 Two major routes i.e. New Delhi – Mumbai & New Delhi – Howrah of the Golden Quadrilateral have been taken up for enhancing the speed potential upto 160 kmph.
Indian Railways are inter alia proliferating Vande Bharat Trains which have higher speed potential, converting passenger trains operating with conventional coaches into Vande Metro type services (which have higher acceleration/deceleration owing to distrusted power).
Indian Railway has already commissioned 1337 Km of Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor and 1404 Km of Western dedicated Freight Corridor which has enabled freight trains to run at higher speed. *****