Chennai: Southern Railway (SR) zone submitted a Detailed Project Report (DPR) to Railway Board for enhancing the speed limit on Chennai-Bengaluru route to 160 km/h. The move of SR comes 20 days after the rollout of Vande Bharat Express. 


According to Mint, the Southern Railway zone submitted DPR to Railway Board also for increasing the speed of trains to 160 kmph in Chennai-Gudur, Chennai-Renigunta sections.


"Chennai – Gudur section (134.3 Km), which is categorized as Group A Golden Quadrilateral route was authorized fit for running trains at 130 Kmph. With this, the section became the first section in Southern Railway capable of handling trains at 130 Kmph," Southern Railways said in a statement, as per Mint. 


Before the proposal, railways and RDSO conducted a series of trail runs for assessing the fitness of tracks and rolling stock. 


SR is also mulling on increasing the speed of trains on key Tamil Nadu routes to the permissible limits. 


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The SR is also planning to complete infrastructure improvements on Chennai-Jolarpettai section to increase the speed of the train to 130 km/h by March.

Earlier, the Railways received the flak of passengers since the fifth Vande Bharat Express operated on Chennai-Mysuru section was the slowest in semi-high speed trains across the country. 


Meanwhile, the share prices of the Indian Railway sector companies seem to be chugging fast on the stock bourses track.


The major listed companies catering to the railway sector are Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd (IRCTC), Container Corporation of India Ltd, Indian Railway Finance Corporation, IRCON International Ltd, Texmaco Rail and Engineering Ltd, BEML Ltd, Bharat Electronics Ltd, Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd and RailTel Corporation of India Ltd.


According to analysts, the share prices are on the uptrend perhaps expecting some announcement from the government in the 2023-24 budget or on the asset monetization plans.


(With IANS inputs)