The Central government has decided to constitute the National High Speed Rail Corporation (NHSRC) to focus on execution of the bullet train project, including tendering, pre-feasibility study and awarding contracts. According to Railway officials, among the eight upcoming high speed rail corridors, the one between Mumbai-Ahmedabad will be taken up on priority.
The 492-km-long Mumbai-Ahmedabad rail route will see its first bullet train, with a speed of 300 km per hour, which is expected to reduce the travel time drastically between the two financially strong cities to a mere two and a half hours from seven hours by Duronto, the fastest train at present.
Besides the Mumbai-Ahmedabad route, the seven other high speed corridors which have got in-principle approval are Delhi-Chandigarh-Amritsar, Pune-Mumbai-Ahmedabad, Hyderabad- Dornakal-Vijayawada-Chennai, Howrah-Haldia, Chennai-Bangalore- Coimbatore-Trivandrum, Delhi-Agra-Lucknow-Allahabad-Patna and Delhi-Jaipur-Ajmer-Jodhpur. Except Delhi-Amritsar and Delhi-Jodhpur, pre-feasibility study has been undertaken for all the corridors.
The PMO has also decided to set up a project steering group consisting of Chairman Railway Board as Chairman and Secretary (DEA), Secretary (Planning), Member (Mechanical), Member (Engineering) and Member (Electrical) as members to monitor the project closely.
