Bibek Debroy: Piercing through my brain

“Will you deny that your duchess here is as famous for her beauty as the Psyche of the divine Raphael?  Well, there is not a straight line in her body: she is all curves.” — In Good King Charles’s Golden Days, George Bernard Shaw

The distance from Mysuru to Bengaluru is a shade less than 140 km. The Shatabdi can do this in two hours, though that's subpar for a Shatabdi. An ordinary passenger train takes considerably longer, say four hours. Construction on this line started in 1877-78. I suspect speed of completion was a function of difficulty of the segment. Bengaluru-Channapatna opened in February 1881, Channapatna-Mandya in March 1881 and Mandya-Mysore in February 1882. In time spent on travel, one is better off today. That original train in 1882 took just over seven hours. But today, IR (Indian Railways) construction takes much longer. On metre to broad gauge conversion, the 1979-80 Railway Budget speech stated, "I have also included gauge conversion of Bangalore-Mysore line in this budget for which there has been a pressing demand from the State of Karnataka as it is considered essential for the development of industries in the Mysore area." The 1991-92 Railway Budget speech said, "Every effort will be made to complete the Mysore-Bangalore gauge conversion project also in 1991-92." The efforts were successful and gauge conversion was ensured in 14 years. No wonder CAG reports routinely rap IR on the knuckles for delays in such projects.

Perhaps more importantly, gauge conversion only ensured a single metre gauge track became a single broad gauge track. Today, every day, there are 27 pairs of trains between Mysuru and Bengaluru. With doubling and electrification combined with gauge conversion, this can increase to around 35 passenger trains, with more goods trains too. But there is a reason why gauge conversion and doubling/electrification work in silos. For doubling/electrification, cash-starved IR desires some fiscal contribution from state governments. Thus, since Mysuru-Bengaluru doubling was approved in 2007-08, we have had a bunch of problems. First, the state government didn't release the money. Second, IR didn't allocate budgetary resources. Third, there were delays in building bridges across the Kaveri. Fourth, there were land acquisition problems, primarily in Mandya, but also in Mysuru and Ramanagaram. Fifth, there was the matter of Tipu Sultan's armoury in Srirangapatna. That got in the way of doubling. I am no historian. So I don't know how many armouries Tipu Sultan built. I used to think it was 11, but evidently it was five. Anyway, one of these was in Srirangapatna. You needed permission from the Archaeological Survey of India and National Monuments Authority. You needed to bring in the National Design and Research Forum. You needed to float tenders (done in 2013). Delhi-based PSL got the contract and roped in US-based Wolfe House Movers. The entire 900-tonne structure will be moved elsewhere, en bloc. In India, nothing this large has ever been moved so.

Therefore, doubling and subsequent electrification should finally be completed by the end of 2016. There is a parallel with that 19th century history. You don't get fast trains between Mysuru and Bengaluru simply because you have completed the easier segment of Bengaluru-Channapatna. All the links in the chain have to be done and as was the case then, the area around Mandya was the problem. Doubling adds capacity, but there are other elements that also have to fall into place, platforms and yards for instance. Bengaluru City may have 10 platforms, but Mysuru has only six. As soon as doubling has got off the ground, some people have begun to talk about bullet trains between Mysuru and Bengaluru and even beyond to Chennai. There is no specific definition of "bullet train", nor even of the somewhat more precise "high speed" train. The International Union of Railways (UICs) recognises this. With that caveat, a speed approaching, or crossing, 300 km/hour should pin down "bullet" and anything around 170 km/hour should pin down "high speed". Imagine doing Mysuru-Bengaluru in 30 minutes. Let's ignore financial viability and construction costs of such tracks, rolling stock and signalling. (Instead of the conventional Rs 10-15 crore per km, it increases to Rs 150-200 crore per km, excluding land costs.) For high speed/bullet you need segregated and straight lines, without curves.

High Speed Rail Corporation of India (HSRC) was formed as a SPV in 2012. Its mandate includes segregated corridors with conventional tech (160-200 km/hour) and high speed (up to 350 km/hour) inter-city with new tech. HSRC has just done a survey of Mysuru-Bengaluru-Chennai and found there are 135 curves along Mysuru-Bengaluru and 10 curves along Bengaluru-Chennai (Chennai-Jolarpettai specifically). This is a technical survey. But even a cursory glance at the railway map would have told you about this curvature between Mysuru and Mandya. Therefore, forget high speed/bullet. 160-165 km/hour is what Mysuru-Bengaluru can aspire for.

Do you remember the lyrics from the Judas Priest album? "Bullet, bullet, bullet train, piercing through my brain." But just before that, it also says, "Standing on trial, scrutinize me." After the trial, the case now rests.

The writer is a member of NITI Aayog. These views are personal