The 12273/74 Howrah–New Delhi Duronto Express is a Duronto class train which operates between the capital of

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

and the national capital

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House ...

. It is the second Duronto Express connecting Delhi to Kolkata, the other one being the

Sealdah–Bikaner Duronto Express The 12259 / 12260 Sealdah - Bikaner Duronto Express is a premium train of the Duronto Express category belonging to Indian Railways - Eastern Railway zone that runs between Sealdah and Bikaner in India.It operates as train number 12259 from Sea ...

. Most of the other Duronto trains take less travel time than their Rajdhani counterparts. Therefore, before the introduction of the Howrah Duronto, it was expected to be the fastest service on the route by many Indian railfans. The Rajdhani Express gets top-most priority on the route, making it the fastest train in the Howrah–Delhi route. But, the Rajdhani continues to be the fastest as both trains cover the same distance and despite being a non-stop service, with no commercial halts, the Duronto takes more time than the Rajdhani. It has been running with modern LHB rakes since 2nd July 2021, having a maximum permissible speed of 130 km/h, thus replacing the hybrid LHB Rakes which have a maximum permissible speed of 120 km/h.

Change in route

With effect from February 2018 the route of this train was changed from Grand Chord to mainline. Therefore, it now travels 1,531 km rather than 1,451 km. Due to this it takes more time than the Premium Rajdhanis and Sealdah Duronto Express from Kolkata to Delhi. Therefore, its average speed went down from 84 kmph to 70 kmph.

Locomotive

It is hauled by a

Howrah Howrah (, , alternatively spelled as Haora) is a city in the Indian state of West Bengal. Howrah is located on the western bank of the Hooghly River opposite its twin city of Kolkata. Administratively it lies within Howrah district, and is th ...

-based

WAP-5 The Indian locomotive class WAP-5 is the name of a class of "High Speed" electric locomotives produced and used by Indian Railways. The first 10 locomotives were imported from ABB in Switzerland in 1995. They are supposed to be a variant of th ...

-based

WAP-7 The Indian locomotive class WAP-7 is a class of 25 Volt, kV Alternating current, AC Electric locomotive, electric locomotives that was developed in 1999 by Chittaranjan Locomotive Works (CLW) for Indian Railways. The model name stands for 5 ft 6 ...

end to end. Howrah-New Delhi Duronto Express on Platform 6 of Mughalsarai Junction

Speed

The maximum permissible speed of the train is up to 130 kmph except some parts. Its all coaches are of air conditioned LHB coach type which is capable of reaching 160 kmph but it does not touch. Sometimes people become confused because according to Indian Railways Permanent Way Manual (IRPWM) on Indian Railways website or Indian Railway Institute of Civil Engineering website, the BG (Broad Gauge) lines have been classified into six groups ‘A’ to ‘E’ on the basis of the future maximum permissible speeds but it may not be same as present speed. The maximum permissible speed is 130 kmph except two small parts – 29 km long New Delhi (NDLS) – Chipyana Buzurg (CPYZ) part where Railway is trying to raise maximum permissible sectional speed to 130 kmph from 110 kmph and Jhajha – Madhupur part where trains pass through at a maximum permissible speed of 110 kmph . The trains also touch the speed of 100 kmph in a short stretch of approximately for this short distance. Railway Board has approved the speed policy which envisages operation of passenger trains at 160 kmph on Delhi–Howrah route but it is still unclear what will its impact on this train in future like increasing of speed but not up to 160 kmph or up to 160 kmph.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Howrah-New Delhi Duronto Express Trains from Howrah Junction railway station Delhi–Kolkata trains Duronto Express trains Rail transport in Uttar Pradesh Rail transport in Jharkhand Railway services introduced in 2010