Tie-up with several countries to revamp rail network: Suresh Prabhu

Howrah, Jan 8: Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu today describing the Kolkata-New Delhi railway corridor as the most "congested" in the country, said collaboration with several countries is being done to revamp the network.

"Kolkata-New Delhi corridor is the most congested area. We have built bridges, laid new tracks to reduce the congestion which has been affecting punctuality of trains. But in some zones, the punctuality is around 90-95 per cent," Prabhu said after flagging off new trains here at the Howrah station.

The Railways have gone for tie-ups with many countries to make travelling in trains more safe and secure, he said.

"Indian Railways have a collaboration with Japan to revamp the entire network to help address the congestion as well as improving the operation so as to bring it to the global standard," the Union Minister said.

He also praised the achievements of the Railways in the last one year and urged state governments and local administrations to come forth and help them.

"Quite a lot has been achieved in the last one year.. But we have to address the long backlog of years of inaction," Prabhu said.

Notably, India-Japan has entered into an MoU to build a bullet train network in the country. India's first bullet train network is scheduled to come up between Mumbai and Ahmedabad at a cost of Rs 98,000 crore.

PTI