Chennai, Aug 29:
The Railway Ministry has planned to expand several of the country’s busiest railway corridors from double-track to four-track routes, including the Chennai-Mumbai, Chennai-Delhi and Chennai-Kolkata routes, Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has said.
The proposed expansion is aimed at substantially increasing railway capacity on key routes handling heavy passenger and freight traffic.
According to the Railway Ministry, seven major corridors have been identified for the expansion. They include Delhi-Howrah, Howrah-Chennai, Chennai-Mumbai, Mumbai-Delhi, Delhi-Chennai, Mumbai-Howrah and Delhi-Guwahati.
Together, these corridors span around 11,000 km and account for approximately 41 per cent of the total traffic handled by Indian Railways.
The existing routes are currently operating primarily with two tracks, creating capacity constraints as passenger and freight movement continues to increase.
The proposed conversion to four-track routes is expected to effectively double the available railway capacity on these corridors.
The Chennai-Mumbai route is among the important corridors included in the expansion plan. The Chennai-Delhi and Chennai-Kolkata connectivity will also benefit from the proposed augmentation.
The expansion is expected to facilitate smoother movement of trains and provide additional capacity for both passenger and freight services.
Railway authorities are also looking at the wider economic benefits of increasing rail capacity, including reducing transportation costs and encouraging greater movement of goods by rail.
The expansion is expected to become increasingly important as industrial production, urbanisation and inter-State movement of passengers and commodities grow.
The Railway Ministry has identified congestion on the seven corridors as a major constraint and views capacity augmentation as essential to meet future demand.
For Chennai, the proposed four-tracking of routes towards Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata could strengthen the city’s position as a major southern railway hub and improve long-distance connectivity with key economic centres across the country.
The expansion would also provide additional operational flexibility, allowing passenger and freight trains to move with fewer conflicts on heavily utilised sections.