Get priorities right

With reference to “Like demonetisation, bullet train project will kill everything: Chidambaram” (September 30), P Chidambaram is absolutely correct in his assessment that the Japanese funding can be more profitably used in running safe trains. This is not to say that bullet trains are not needed. Whether we need a bullet train now should be considered in the light of our priorities. The cost of the train at around Rs 1.1 lakh crore, which equals or exceeds our current Budgets on — to cite two important areas — education and health, which together is around Rs 1.2 lakh crore. If we have to be a skilled and a healthy nation we need to focus on this, among other needs.

Japanese skill and technology should be utilised to make our current trains safe, clean and punctual with improved speeds across the nation and not just on one corridor. Bengaluru Metro is a good example of how the ridership has gone up phenomenally with good connectivity at an affordable cost. This must be true across all metros and will be beneficial if only we can link important metros across the nation. Japan, for one, will surely be happy not only to fund such projects but also to share its technology, which can eventually include bullet trains too.

 

H N Ramakrishna   Bengaluru

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