The Centre has initiated the process of drawing up a blueprint to interconnect the four metros — Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata — with high-speed network of trains running at 160 kmph by August 2022.
The Railway Board on Thursday gave the go-ahead for the ambitious project proposed by NITI Aayog. Christened as Rail Golden Quadrilateral, the project is now awaiting the Cabinet approval. Sources in the Railways Ministry said an extra budgetary allocation of around Rs 36,000 crore will be required for the project.
The current average speed of trains on these networks is around 88-90 kmph.
As senior rail official said that in a high-level meeting on November 28, the Railway Board gave the go-ahead to start the process to interconnect the four metros — Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Howrah, Delhi-Chennai, Chennai-Howrah, Chennai-Mumbai and Howrah-Mumbai — through high speed corridor (HSC).
The train travel time from Kolkata to Mumbai varies from 26 to 40 hours. Duronto takes 26 hours to reach Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus while Jnaneswari Express takes 30 hours to reach lomanya Tilak Terminus (Kurla). The high-speed train can reduce the travel time to less than 10-16 hours.
The project envisages creation of a 10,000 km network of semi-high speed routes connecting the four major cities. The corridor will be launched on August 15, 2022 to coincide with 75 years of India’s Independence.
Rail officials said this proposed corridor is similar to the Golden Quadrilateral highway project of the NDA Government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
While high-speed train corridor projects on the Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah routes were included in Budget 2017-2018 at an estimated cost of Rs 11,189 crore and Rs 6,975 crore respectively, the board is likely to finalise a detailed cost estimate for the remaining four routes by December 31 this year.
“High-speed railway (HSR) involves high capital cost and high demand risk due to higher tariff as compared to conventional rail. Each HSR corridor will have a long gestation period and will be highly capital intensive. The project will require seamless coordination among Central Government Ministries, Government agencies and State Governments, as well as strategic thinking,” added a Ministry official.
On the other hand, the first Annual General Body Meeting of the National High Speed Rail Corporation is scheduled for December 4. It has 13 stakeholders, including Rail Board Chairman, MD of NHSRC and a representative of the President of India. “This is a crucial meeting since it will be the first AGM of the company formed to look after the execution of entire Mumbai-Ahemdabad Rs 1 lakh crore bullet train project,” said the official.
