 "Bullet trains, trains")
The government is planning to invest Rs 10 trillion into seven new bullet train projects across the country even as the Covid-19 pandemic is set to delay the first such high-speed project — Mumbai to Ahmedabad — in India.
The new routes will cover a total of 4,869 kilometres (km), including Delhi-Varanasi (865 km), Mumbai-Nagpur (753 km), Delhi-Ahmedabad (886 km), Chennai-Mysore (435 km), Delhi-Amritsar (459 km), Mumbai-Hyderabad (711 km) and Varanasi-Howrah (760 km).
The Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail project covers a stretch of 508.17 km and is estimated to cost Rs 1.08 trillion, around Rs 213 crore per km. According to sources, the new routes are estimated to cost around Rs 10 trillion.
“As of now, the government has asked us to prepare detailed project reports (DPRs) of seven new corridors. Capital costs can be decided only after the DPR is prepared, as a lot of things like terrains and route length are a factor,” said Achal Khare, managing director of National High-Speed Rail Corporation (NHSRCL).
Even for metros and rapid rail projects, the average cost is around Rs 250 crore per km.
NHSRCL had floated a tender recently to carry out a survey, identify overhead, overground and underground utilities, and checking power sourcing options for substations along the proposed Mumbai-Nasik-Nagpur high-speed rail corridor.
The company also floated tenders related to data collection for preparing DPRs for the Delhi–Jaipur-Udaipur-Ahmedabad HSR Corridor and Delhi-Lucknow -Varanasi corridor.
“All the new corridors may not necessary be built using Japanese technology. Hence, the cost may differ,” said a senior Railways official. For the existing corridor, Japanese Shinkansen technology is being used.
The plan for the new corridors comes amid reports that the commissioning of the first bullet train project will be postponed from December 2023 to October 2028, owing to the delay in land acquisition and the ongoing pandemic situation.
For the Mumbai-Ahmedabad project, 63 per cent of the land has so far been acquired. In Gujarat, around 82 per cent of the required land has been acquired, while in Maharashtra it’s only 23 per cent.
The high-speed rail will cover 155.76 km in Maharashtra (7.04 km in Mumbai sub-urban, 39.66 km in Thane district and 109.06 km in Palghar district), 4.3 km in the Union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and 348.04 km in Gujarat.
The train will operate at a speed of 320 kmph at an elevated (10 to 15 m) track above the ground on a viaduct all along except 26 km in Mumbai, which will be underground. All stations will be elevated except Bandra Kurla Complex (Mumbai), which will be underground. The 12 planned stations include Mumbai, Thane, Virar, and Boisar in Maharashtra; and Vapi, Bilimora, Surat, Bharuch, Vadodara, Anand, Ahmedabad and Sabarmati in Gujarat.
Initially, trains will have ten coaches with a seating capacity of 750 passengers, which will be increased to 16 coaches and seating capacity of 1,250. There will be 35 trains per day (one direction) — one train every 20 minutes in peak hours.
