In Delhi, there are 5 main railway stations. They are :-

• New Delhi (NDLS).
• Old Delhi Junction (DLI).
• Delhi Sarai Rohilla (DEE).
• Hazrat Nizamuddin (NZM).
• Anand Vihar Terminal (ANVT).

All these 5 main railway stations in Delhi are made as per the routes for different cities in India like trains halting, originating and terminating at New Delhi railway goes to every routes of Indian Railways i.e. Kanpur, Jhansi, Kota, Jaipur, Ludhiana etc.

Similarly, trains originating and terminating at Anand Vihar Terminal goes towards North East side and eastern part of India via Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Trains going towards Jaipur and other cities of Rajasthan like Jodhpur, Bikaner etc goes from Delhi Sarai Rohilla railway station and trains going towards Central India and Southern India cities like Bhopal, Nagpur, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai etc goes from Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station.

Hence, in this way the train travel routes are made for different cities.

In Indian Railways, there are currently 24 operational pairs of Rajdhani Express for all capital cities of different states.

• Rajdhani Express for Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal originates and terminates at New Delhi.

All these Rajdhani Express originating and terminating at New Delhi passes via Kanpur, Jhansi, Kota, Jaipur, Ludhiana i.e. in different routes of Indian Railways. New Delhi railway station holds the record for the largest route interlocking system in the world i.e. 48.

• Rajdhani Express for Agartala originates and terminates at Anand Vihar Terminal.
• Rajdhani Express for Goa, Karnataka, Kerela, Tamil Nadu, Telangana originates and terminates at Hazrat Nizamuddin.

There are 3 Rajdhani Express for Maharashtra state in which one originates and terminates at New Delhi and the other two trains originates and terminates at Hazrat Nizamuddin.

On a conclusion point, there are 3 railway stations which are originating and terminating stations for Rajdhani Express.

• New Delhi (NDLS).
• Hazrat Nizamuddin (NZM).
• Anand Vihar Terminal (ANVT).

Now, coming to the main question why do all south going Rajdhani Express departs from Nizamuddin instead of the New Delhi railway station ?

The basic reason behind all south going Rajdhani Express departs from Nizamuddin instead of New Delhi railway station is to cut down the travel time.

But how ?

Suppose, all south going Rajdhani trains are leaving for different capital cities from Delhi, they depart on time and reaches their respective destination like Chennai, Goa, Bangalore etc.

In the return journey, when those Rajdhani Express departs from those capital cities for Delhi, they are terminated at Hazrat Nizamuddin instead of New Delhi. This is done to cut down the extra travel time of 40 to 45 minutes between Hazrat Nizamuddin and New Delhi.

• The distance between Hazrat Nizamuddin and New Delhi is 7 kilometers.

The time taken to travel between these two stations is approximately 40 to 45 minutes due to not getting line clearance on time. There are heavy traffic of trains at New Delhi railway station. Nizamuddin railway station lies on New Delhi - Mumbai main line and New Delhi - Bhopal section.

All south going Rajdhani Express passes via Kota and Jhansi, based on the destination point of Rajdhani Express. Kota falls between New Delhi and Mumbai whereas Jhansi falls between New Delhi and Bhopal.

• The Thiruvananthapuram and Madgaon Rajdhani Express passes via Kota to their destination station.
• The Chennai, Bangalore and Secunderabad Rajdhani Express passes via Jhansi to their destination station.

Not only Rajdhani Express, all other superfast and mail express trains running between Delhi and South cities departs from Hazrat Nizamuddin like Dakshin Express, Mangala Lakshadweep Express, Kongu Express, Thirukkural Express etc.

Out of 7 pairs of Rajdhani Express, 2 pairs of Rajdhani Express goes to Mumbai from Hazrat Nizamuddin. Both Rajdhani Express for Mumbai travels via different routes from Hazrat Nizamuddin.

• The August Kranti Rajdhani Express (12953/54) passes via Kota whereas the CSMT Rajdhani Express (22221/22) passes via Jhansi.
• The CSMT Rajdhani Express runs with push-pull method which means two WAP-7 locomotives of KYN shed are attached to haul the train.

Hope you are clear now !!!

Author:  Ankit Barnawal