Chinese Railway report

China's high-speed rail, in India

• Staff Reporter
 
• 2012-12-03

China's Harbin-Dalian line. (File photo/Xinhua)

India could court China — who reportedly offered a lower price than Japan for the deal — to construct high-speed railways in the country, reports the Beijing News.

The country has shown interest in trying to cram its ballooning population of 1.2 billion into China's high-speed rail trains for some time, said Indian news agency Hindustan Times in November. India's railway bureau has approved six such programs to date.

The interest of China's neighbor comes at a time when China has just proven its ability to build an extensive network in a short period of time, despite being new to the sector, which is crowded by Japan and France, said the news agency.

Some Indian media expressed opinions against the collaboration, saying that the introduction of China's HSR will enlarge India's deficit in trade with China and the cost of construction will be hard to justify as the majority of the Indian public cannot afford the current ticket price.