BULLET trains may soon be a reality in the country. The Railway Ministry is planning to start initial feasibility studies in the next two-three months to identify routes for constructing high-speed rail corridors.
Speaking on the sidelines of a seminar on High Speed Corridors on Indian Railways on Tuesday, JP Batra Chairman Railway Board said, “We will be starting formal feasibility studies on four routes soon. We have written to various state governments who have given an in-principle approval to the proposal.
Possible routes include
Mumbai-Surat-Vadodara-Ahmedabad; Jaipur-Delhi-Sonepat-Chandigarh-Ludhiana-Jallandhar-Amritsar; Bangalore-Chennai; Kolkata-Jamshedpur-Patna.
Approvals have been given by Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan for the northern region, Gujarat and Maharashtra for the West, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka for the south and Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal for the east.
The railways had earlier carried out ridership studies on the Ahmedabad-Mumbai route and Delhi-Amritsar route and feels that bullet trains will have enough traffic, Batra said.
The ministry will now appoint a consultant for the feasibility studies, he said. The consultant would also work out the cost of construction and a funding model.
The high-speed corridors are expected to cost about Rs 40 crore per kilometre, Batra said and so the railways are keen to go in for the private-public partnership route. Commenting on the funding Batra said, “We are looking for a financing model where the Centre, the states and the private player will all have equity in the project.”
However, the bullet trains will not come cheap. Each of the corridors is expected to cost about Rs 25,000 crore , excluding the cost of land. The railways hope to get about Rs 11,000 crore from its riders, Rs 5,000 crore as equity and another Rs 4,000 crore as viability gap funding
Batra said the train fares would be outside the normal fare structure. Passengers will have to shell out the same amount as a Rajdhani AC two-tier ticket costs, he added. This is in keeping with the ministry’s aim to woo the passengers of low-cost airlines, lost upper class passengers, long distance cars and luxury buses.
Speaking at the conference, Geetam Tiwari professor IIT (Delhi) said “High speed trains are more environment friendly and consume less energy as compared to road sector.” Running such trains in India, will be a good move, she added.
Courtesy : Expressindia.com
Speaking on the sidelines of a seminar on High Speed Corridors on Indian Railways on Tuesday, JP Batra Chairman Railway Board said, “We will be starting formal feasibility studies on four routes soon. We have written to various state governments who have given an in-principle approval to the proposal.
Possible routes include
Mumbai-Surat-Vadodara-Ahmedabad; Jaipur-Delhi-Sonepat-Chandigarh-Ludhiana-Jallandhar-Amritsar; Bangalore-Chennai; Kolkata-Jamshedpur-Patna.
Approvals have been given by Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan for the northern region, Gujarat and Maharashtra for the West, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka for the south and Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal for the east.
The railways had earlier carried out ridership studies on the Ahmedabad-Mumbai route and Delhi-Amritsar route and feels that bullet trains will have enough traffic, Batra said.
The ministry will now appoint a consultant for the feasibility studies, he said. The consultant would also work out the cost of construction and a funding model.
The high-speed corridors are expected to cost about Rs 40 crore per kilometre, Batra said and so the railways are keen to go in for the private-public partnership route. Commenting on the funding Batra said, “We are looking for a financing model where the Centre, the states and the private player will all have equity in the project.”
However, the bullet trains will not come cheap. Each of the corridors is expected to cost about Rs 25,000 crore , excluding the cost of land. The railways hope to get about Rs 11,000 crore from its riders, Rs 5,000 crore as equity and another Rs 4,000 crore as viability gap funding
Batra said the train fares would be outside the normal fare structure. Passengers will have to shell out the same amount as a Rajdhani AC two-tier ticket costs, he added. This is in keeping with the ministry’s aim to woo the passengers of low-cost airlines, lost upper class passengers, long distance cars and luxury buses.
Speaking at the conference, Geetam Tiwari professor IIT (Delhi) said “High speed trains are more environment friendly and consume less energy as compared to road sector.” Running such trains in India, will be a good move, she added.
Courtesy : Expressindia.com