NEW DELHI: Railway minister Pawan Bansal on Friday said it was high time to think of high-speed trains to cater to the increasing demand of faster inter-city travel in a growing economy.
Considering the monetary constraints and high cost involved, Bansal stressed on the need to develop financial models for high speed train services to make them inclusive and a win-win proposition for all stakeholders.
Bansal called the project "aspirational" which involved very high cost but refused to give any timeframe for the launch of cost intensive bullet trains. "It will be difficult to say when we will have bullet trains. But we have started some preliminary work on it," he said.
"High speed train running at 350 kmph is our aspirational project. We have selected Mumbai-Ahmedabad route as a pilot project. But the cost involved in the 534-km long project is very high. It is estimated to cost about Rs 63,000 crore," Bansal said.
The minister argued that bullet trains should not remain confined to a particular class but should be "affordable for all".
"The experts will have to work on a financial model which will be win-win situation for all stakeholders. While these high-speed services are premium services, the Indian model needs to be worked out which makes it more affordable to bulk of the customers," Bansal said.
The railways has identified six high-speed corridors for techno-economic feasibility studies that includes Delhi-Agra-Patna, Howrah-Haldia, Chennai-Bangalore-Thiruvananthapuram and Pune-Mumbai-Ahmedabad.
The government has already identified Mumbai-Ahmedabad as the pilot project. A project steering group has been constituted to examine the options available for the project and suggest mechanisms for quickly moving forward.
Time has come to think in terms of high-speed trains, Bansal says
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Time has come to think in terms of high-speed trains, Bansal says
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Time has come to think in terms of high-speed trains, Bansal says
