The high-speed Talgo train will attempt to reach Mumbai from Delhi in less than 12 hours.
The final trial to determine if a Spanish-made train, the Talgo, can slash the journey between Delhi and Mumbai by four hours, delivering passengers at just under 12 hours to their destination, has begun.
Here are the 10 developments in this story:
The train left Delhi at 2:45 pm and is scheduled to reach Mumbai in 11 hours and 45 minutes, while running at 150 kilometres per hour.
Besides railway staff, technicians from Talgo are onboard during the trial.
In three of four trials held so far, the train has not hit the required speed.
On Wednesday, the train reached Mumbai 18 minutes late from Delhi in its fourth trial.
The tracks between Delhi and Mumbai cover about 1,400 km. Currently, the Rajdhani Express makes the journey in 16 hours.
Nine super light-weight coaches manufactured by Spanish firm Talgo, which can hit 200 km per hour, were imported to Mumbai in April.
The nine-coach Talgo train consists of two Executive Class cars, four Chair Cars, a cafeteria, a power car and a tail-end coach for staff and equipment.
The railways will collate the results of technical and speed tests to determine whether to buy the Talgo coaches.
Railway officials say bids will also be sought from other manufacturers for similar high-speed light-weight coaches.
Railways had conducted the first trial run of Talgo trains on the Bareilly-Moradabad stretch in Uttar Pradesh followed by the second trial run was conducted on the Palwal-Mathura section of the North-Central Railway.
