Railways plans 6 new high-speed corridors for passenger train
31 Jan 2020
Indian Railways has identified six sections in its national network for operating high-speed and semi-high speed train services, on the lines of the under-construction Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed route.
Trains can run at a maximum speed of over 300 km per hr on a high-speed corridor, while on a semi-high speed corridor, the maximum speed can go beyond 160km per hr.
Briefing the media ahead of the union budget, Railway Board chairman VK Yadav said that the six corridors include the Delhi-Noida-Agra-Lucknow-Varanasi (865 km) and the Delhi-Jaipur-Udaipur-Ahmedabad (886km) sections.
He said a detailed project report on these sections will be ready within a year.
Other corridors are: Mumbai-Nashik-Nagpur (753 km), Mumbai-Pune-Hyderabad (711 km), Chennai-Bangalore-Mysore (435 km) and the Delhi-Chandigarh-Ludhiana-Jalandhar-Amritsar (459 km).
"We have identified these six corridors and their detailed project reports (DPR) will be prepared within the year. The DPR will study the feasibility of these routes, which includes land availability, alignment and a study of the traffic potential there. After these things are studied, we will decide if they will be high-speed or semi-high speed corridors," said Yadav.
He said the bullet train project between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, the country's first high-speed corridor, will be completed by December 2023.
Yadav said 90 per cent land acquisition work for the bullet train project will be completed in the next six months.
"We need 1,380 hectare of land for the project. 1,005 hectare was private land of which we have acquired 471 hectares. 149 hectare was state government land of which we have got 119 hectares. The remaining is 128 hectares, which is railway land, has been given to the high-speed corporation," he said.
Yadav also said that five bids for civil engineering work, including track work and tunnels, will be opened in March and finalised within six to eight months thereafter.