The Indian Railways will shorten the travel time between New Delhi-Kolkata by at least two and a half hours by improving the highest speed of trains to 160 km per hour. The project along the 1,525-km route will be carried out under project Mission Raftar, which strives to decrease travel time along busy stretches by running passenger trains at 160 km per hour speed. An identical plan under the project is already being executed, along the 1,483-km long New Delhi-Mumbai route. Presently, the Rajdhani Express is the fastest train between New Delhi-Howrah. It takes 17.05 hours to finish the journey through Gaya in Bihar. Passengers travelling along the New Delhi-Howrah route will be able to reach their destination at least two and a half hours to three hours before as the train speed will be improved from the current 85 km per hour to a maximum of 160 km per hour. With the execution of Mission Raftar, the Rajdhani Express operating along this route will reach its destination in less than 15 hours. The highest speed on this route was increased to 130 km per hour in July 2020. Work for increasing the sectional speed to 160 km per hour along New Delhi-Howrah has been approved, and efforts to enhance the tracks via overhead equipment modification, fencing, and automatic train protection are in different stages of progress. The Rajdhani Express between Howrah-New Delhi operates at an average speed of 85 km per hour, which is expected to grow to 160 km per hour. While over two hours is likely to be saved, the exact decreased travel time will be known only when an upsurge in speed is implemented and the timetable of trains is modified keeping in mind these elements, the official said. Officials said the travel time taken by Rajdhani between New Delhi-Mumbai would also be decreased by over an hour. At least 35% of the work to attain this purpose has already been completed. Image Source Also read: Railway Board plans to improve various rail routes to 160 kmph