Bullet Train.

Bullet train projects may not gain speed soon

New Delhi, Feb 1, 2013, DHNS:

Bansal stresses upon the challenges in mobilising resources for the project

Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal on Friday hinted that the bullet train projects here may not materialise soon. He also denied setting any timeline for the high-speed rail corridor between Mumbai and Ahmedabad.

“It will be difficult to say when we will have bullet trains. But we have started some preliminary work. Our aim is to make tangible progress, but it is not possible to give a timeline for it,” Bansal told reporters on the sidelines of an international seminar on high-speed trains in India. He  talked about the challenges in mobilising resources for the project and absence of a revenue model.

“High-speed trains at 350 kmph is our aspirational project and we have selected the Mumbai-Ahmedabad route for a pilot project. But the cost involved in the 534 km route is very high. It is estimated to be about Rs 63,000 crore. 

Since it has to be executed with participation of private players, finalisation of the revenue model is very important,” Bansal said.

The minister also talked about the affordability aspect. “While these are premium services, in the Indian context, a model needs to be worked out which makes it more affordable to the people so that the introduction of high-speed rail system here becomes truly inclusive,” Bansal said at the seminar. In 2009, the Indian Railways decided to conduct feasibility studies on six identified corridors, over a distance of around 3,800 km. 

The corridors are  Pune-Mumbai-Ahmedabad, Delhi-Chandigarh-Amritsar, Delhi-Agra-Lucknow-Varanasi-Patna, Howrah-Haldia, Hyderabad-Dornkal-Vijaywada-Chennai and Chennai-Bangalore-Coimbatore-Earnakuluam-Thiruvananthapuram.
They are at various stages of pre-feasibility and feasibility studies. 

The state governments are also involved in the process. The Mumbai-Ahmedabad corridor has been selected for the pilot project.

“There could be more high-speed corridors, which may be identified. The 12th Plan has also included high-speed projects,” said Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary, Minister of State for Railways.