Centre to invest in 7 new bullet train corridors

Image courtesy: The Financial ExpressThe Centre is planning to invest Rs 10 trillion in seven new bullet train projects. This decision comes even though there has been a delay in the execution of the Mumbai – Ahmedabad corridor by few years due to COVID-19 and lockdown.The new corridors will be connecting Delhi-Varanasi (865 km), Delhi-Ahmedabad (886 km), Delhi-Amritsar (459 km), Chennai-Mysore (435 km), Mumbai-Hyderabad (711 km) Mumbai-Nagpur (753 km) and Varanasi-Howrah (760 km). These projects will span over a distance of 4,869 km with per km cost of Rs 2.13 billion.Reportedly the government has asked National High-Speed Rail Corporation (NHSRCL) for detailed project reports (DRPs) of the seven new corridors.The foundation stone of 508 km long Mumbai-Ahmedabad speed rail corridor was laid on September 14, 2017, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe. The project is being built using Japanese Shinkansen technology and it costs $ 17 billion. The train will run at a speed of 300 km per hour and is expected to reduce the travel time by two hours.This ambitious project was scheduled to be completed by December 2023 but it failed to meet the deadline. This delay is an aftermath of COVID-19 and lockdown and the difficulty caused in issuing tenders and land acquisition.It is important to note that not all the projects will be developed using the Japanese Shinkansen technology. And, the cost of the new projects might differ from the cost of Mumbai – Ahmedabad corridor. The cost will be determined only after the DPR is prepared, as a lot of factors like terrains and route length are a need to be taken into consideration.Reportedly NHSRC has already acquired 63 percent of the land required for the new project – which includes 22 percent in Maharashtra, 80 percent in Dadar and Nagar Haveli and 77 percent in Gujarat, and land acquisition issues in places like Navsari in Gujarat and Palghar in Maharashtra are yet to be figured out.