Reach Agra in less time

Vijay Upadhyay
Agra. The 200 km Agra-Delhi railway track will finally be shorter by 20 minutes with the launch of the new High Speed Shatabdi Express this January. The final rehearsal of the train's operation between Agra and Delhi was completed on Friday afternoon with the train achieving a maximum speed of 150 kmph, a record speed for any train in the country.

Although the distance between the two stations was covered in just over two hours, Railway authorities believe the average running time of this train will be 115 minutes.
Railway sources indicate that this high speed train will, in fact, be the Delhi-Bhopal Shatabdi which shall hit a speed of up to 150 kmph on the Delhi-Agra track. The train is expected to be flagged off by Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav on January 21.
Talking to The Pioneer, M Suresh, Divisional Railway Manager, North Central Railway, said there have been several trial runs in the past few years to study the problems faced in maintaining an average speed of 150 kmph. Railway engineers pointed out that besides designing new coaches for the train, the railway tracks would also have to be safeguarded with a wall on either side of the track.
A large part of the railway track has now been safeguarded against stray cattle etc. by building a wall and special coaches for the train are to arrive from Germany. Till such time, however, some coaches have been especially designed by the railway coach factory in Kapurthala; the engine has been procured from Germany. Besides, the signaling and electrical systems have also been improved to make the dream run possible.
Although Railway authorities are ambitiously trying to compete with foreign railway networks in terms of speed - like the French TGV running at 515 kmph and the Japanese Shinkansen, commonly called the "Bullet", running at over 300 kmph - India has still a long way to go. While the fastest Indian train is yet to break the 150 kmph barrier, the Tokaido Shinkansen in Japan reached average speeds of 200 kmph back in 1964 and the French TGV reached average speeds of 270 kmph in 1981. Even in the 1960s, the TGV had created a record of achieving a maximum speed of 192 kmph, running on a gas turbine engine instead of electric.
In comparison to these trains, a speed record of 150 kmph stands nowhere on the international speed chart. Besides, frequent rail fractures on this so-called high speed track between Agra and Delhi will continue to dog the successful operation of any high speed train. Even Railway sources believe there are several stretches on this track where the train cannot achieve speeds exceeding 90-100 kmph due to old, low-grade tracks and frequent obstructions in the path of the train.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Woman torched to death by inlaws on International Women's Day in India

AGRA.               It could serve as a well-placed slap in the face of the the groups of so-called women's rights activists who all too recently celebrated International Women’s Day, fervently praising the contribution made by women to the society and vowing to prevent violence against the feminine gender comfortably ensconced in luxurious clubs and hotels.    While the world was busy celebrating women’s day, a young girl was murdered in cold-blood, torched to death by her in-laws in Kayamganj town of Farrukhabad district of Uttar Pradesh, alongwith a 6-month fetus inside her, just three years after marriage.    Two weeks have passed since the grisly murder but the local police appears to be in no hurry to catch the absconding in-laws who doused the girl in kerosene and left her to burn and die on the street, making good their escape while the locals awaited for the police to arrive. Meanwhile, the victim’s mother Archana Sharma has suffered from a strok
Read more

My views on Libya, India and the permanent SC seat

Image
On Wednesday, the British government 'de-recognized' the Gaddafi government and decided that it was in the interest of democracy to recognize the Libyan rebels as the only legal representative of the Libyan people. Immediately after that, the British Police entered the Libyan embassy in London and forced the remaining Libyan diplomats out of UK. France has already been parachuting modern weaponry, arms and ammunition to the Libyan rebel strongholds and both France and the United States have recognized the rebels as the legal Libyan representative power. While I am not a fan of Gaddafi or his regime in any way or form but I am equally disappointed in NATO's tactics and the double standards being played by the western powers in the Arab world. Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein had been two sore patches in the otherwise near-sweeping 'western conquest' of the Arab world and its oil. Only now, when a group of disenchanted Libyans, trained and provided for by wes
Read more

Agra unit to turn waste to wood

Image
Vishal Sharma / Agra December 29, 2008, 0:00 IST Govardhan Udyog plans to use cowdung to produce particle board. Faced with the task of developing environment-friendly technology for industry due to guidelines issued by the Supreme Court, entrepreneurs in Agra are realising the cost-effective potential of such technologies and innovations. Govardhan Udyog is one such unit which plans to use a non-conventional raw material, cowdung, to produce particle board and pharmaceutical products. The unit was inaugurated this week on the Agra-Delhi national highway near the Mathura refinery, about 55 km from Agra. Company sources said the basic raw material used in the manufacture of particle board will be cow dung. This will perhaps make it the first particle board manufacturing facility using cowdung as the raw material. Govardhan Udyog Managing Director SK Mittal said particle boards were emerging as a viable alternative in designing office furniture and automation products in the country as c
Read more