Trains With Speed of 200 km/hr to Connect All Major Cities: Railways' Next Big Project to Cost Rs 10-Lakh-Crore
The fresh railway lines would come parallel to the national highways, or atop the existing the rail routes using elevated corridors.
New Delhi, Mar 5: The Indian Railways is expected to unveil its next ambitious plan to transform the existing rail network, by infusing an investment of Rs 10-lakh-crore. A new set of rail network would be laid down connecting all major cities of the nation, with trains plying at 200 km/hr.
The railway corridor would be on lines of government's Bharatmala highway development programme -- which aims to connect all peripheries of India through a 48,793-km road network.
The fresh railway lines would come parallel to the national highways, or atop the existing the rail routes using elevated corridors, said a senior Railways official while speaking to ET.
The project's cost, the official said, is calculated with an estimation of Rs 200-crore per kilometre.
Railway Minister Piyush Goyal is likely to pitch for increased private investment to bring down the cost. The FDI route is also being looked upon, with investment from global majors significantly subsidising the burden on the exchequer.
To bring down input costs, the Railways would reportedly be using light-weight aluminium coaches, which would also facilitate commutation at higher speeds.
Also, to rope in commercial players and multilateral agencies, the Railways is reportedly planning to create stations akin to those on the Delhi Metro route, which would turn the stations as point of economic opportunities rather than mere commutation points.
The project's announcement is likely to be made in April. It comes in the backdrop of Railways already allocating budgets to replace long route Rajdhanis with Train-20 (temporary name) whose top speed would be 160 km/hr, as against the 130 km/hr at which the Rajdhani currently plies. The upgradation is targeted to be completed by 2020.
By 2022, the Railways also plans to roll-out trains on the first-ever bullet train line between Ahmedabad to Mumbai. 80 percent of the project is being funded by Japan through a state-sponsored loan at 0.1 per cent interest rate.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 05, 2018 11:17 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).