Due to ‘limited finance options’ available to Indian Railways, the development of high speed railways in the country ‘has to be done under a Public Private Partnership (PPP) model’, the Indian Minister of State for Railways K H Muniyappa has said.
The Minister said:
“Railways desire the PPP mode for investment and execution, and draw on frontier technologies incorporating the highest standards of safety and service quality.
“High speed rail corridors will become a catalyst for India’s economic growth, a stimulus for the development of satellite towns and reduction of migration to metropolises.”
The Minster was speaking at a seminar on High Speed Trains – Issues & Options recently.
The seminar was jointly organised by the Institution of Engineers (India) – Delhi State Centre, IET (UK) – Delhi Local Network and Institution of Railway Electrical Engineers (IREE).
Kul Bhushan, Member Electrical, Railway Board, said:
“Ministry of Railways has adopted a two pronged strategy to increase speeds of passenger trains. A study is being carried out by Government of Japan for upgrading speed of New Delhi-Mumbai route to 200 kmph.
“The other strategy is to develop green field high speed rail corridors with a speed potential of 250-350 kmph on the identified six corridors.”
Globally, more than 40,000 kms of high speed rail tracks are under construction.
High speed rail is environmentally friendly and will reduce the Green House Effect.
High speed rail in the country will ‘help to achieve mobility with lesser pollution’.
It will create manufacturing capability resulting in employment opportunity, the Minister said.
To develop a high speed rail network, the Government has identified six corridors; Delhi-Chandigarh-Amritsar (450 km), Pune-Mumbai-Ahmedabad (650 km), Hyderabad-Dornakal-Vijaywada-Chennai (664 km), Chennai-Bangalore-Coimbatore-Ernakulam (649 km), Howrah-Haldia (135 km) and Delhi-Agra-Lucknow-Varanasi-Patna (991 km).
