Pune: The local rail division will need considerable time to enhance the capacity of railway tracks to cater to the full speed — 160kmph — of Vande Bharat trains to and from the city. Senior officials of the rail division said trains on the Pune-Lonavla section will start running at a speed of 130 kmph from next March. "Considering the maximum speed of the Vande Bharat trains, the track capacity needed to be enhanced even more.
Once the speed of trains on the Pune-Lonavla section increases to 130kmph, we will start further enhancements of the tracks. It will, however, take a considerable amount of time, but we hope to see trains running at their maximum speed in the near future," a senior official with the Pune rail division said. The 63km-long tracks on the Pune-Lonavla section can cater to a speed of 110kmph.
"This is not the case only in the Pune-Lonavla section, but Vande Bharat trains have been running at a far lower speed of 110 kmph in the Pune-Miraj and Miraj-Kolhapur sections as well. So far, only the tracks along the Pune-Daund section have been enhanced to cater to a speed of up to 130 kmph. For instance, the CSMT-Solapur Vande Bharat trains run at a speed of 130 kmph on the Daund section," the official said.
Ram Paul Bagpagga, PRO of the Pune rail division, told TOI, "Before the enhancement of the tracks, it has to be ensured that track doubling is done. The Pune-Lonavla section consists of two tracks and plans are in place to add two more. The Pune-Miraj sect.