New Delhi : Upgradation and improvement of railway tracks on Indian Railways to increase the speed potential have been carried out in a big way during the last 11 years. The measures for track upgradation include use of 60 kg rails, wider base concrete sleepers, thick web switches, longer rail panels, H Beam sleepers, modern track renewal and maintenance machines, interlocking of level crossing gates, intense monitoring of track geometry etc. This information was provided by the Union Minister for Railways, Information & Broadcasting and Electronics & Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw, in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha.
As a result of the above measures, there has been significant increase in speed potential of the tracks. Total percentage of track having speed potential of 110 kmph and above has gone to 79% in Nov’25 from 40% in Mar’14. The details of speed potential of railway tracks during 2014 vis-a-vis 2025 are as under:
| Sectional Speed (kmph) | 2014 | 2025 | ||
| Track km | % | Track km | % | |
| <110 | 47897 | 60.4 | 21936 | 20.7 |
| 110-130 | 26409 | 33.3 | 60726 | 57.5 |
| 130 & above | 5036 | 6.3 | 23010 | 21.8 |
| Total | 79342 | 100 | 105672 | 100 |