Six more surveys of Bullet trains on track
Ahmedabad-Mumbai Corridor work gathering pace
The government has ordered survey and preparation of Detailed Project Report (DPR) of Nagpur-Mumbai bullet train project. The survey work is already underway. In addition, the Railway Ministry has ordered survey work for six more bullet train projects including Mumbai-Hyderabad corridor.
The ministry has identified new High Speed Rail (HSR) Corridors on the pattern of the first Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train project launched by PM Modi after coming to power. Apart from Mumbai-Nagpur and Mumbai-Hyderabad projects, five other routes are Delhi – Varanasi, Delhi-Ahmedabad, Chennai-Bengaluru-Mysuru, Delhi-Chandigarh-Amritsar and Varanasi-Howrah.
The government has, however, clarified that none of these corridors have been sanctioned as yet and a decision may be taken after the completion of survey work and outcome of DPR, techno-economic feasibility studies, etc.
At present, only one High Speed Rail Project with design speed of 320-350 Kmph between Ahmedabad-Mumbai is under implementation. The Railway Minister, Ashwini Vaishnav told Shrikant Eknath Shinde and others in Lok Sabha the other day that the government had already been running two Semi-High Speed (SHS) trains and more than 100 such trains are planned to be manufactured at Integrated Coach Factory (ICF).
Meanwhile, the Ahmedabad-Mumbai Bullet Train project is still struggling with land acquisition hurdles. “Out of a total 1396 Hectare of land required for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail (MAHSR) project, about 90% of the land (1264 Ha) has been acquired”, the government said.
Obviously, the MAHRS is finding it difficult to acquire remaining land in Maharashtra as villagers are still resisting in certain patches. However, with the change in regime, there is a strong possibility that the process will be fast-tracked.
