Feasibility study on high speed train gets Rlys nod
Chennai-B’lore-Coimbatore- Ernakulam route will also cover Mysore
The Indian Railways has given a go ahead for conducting a feasibility study on its most ambitious plan to introduce high speed train on the Chennai-Bangalore-Coimbatore- Ernakulam route.
The route also includes Bangalore-Mysore corridor. Secretary to the State Infrastructure Development Department (IDD) Raj Kumar Khatri said that the Railways has okayed the proposal to conduct the feasibility study last week.
Work on conducting the study will commence soon. With the Railways’ move, the State government has decided not to commission a separate feasibility study on implementing a high-speed train between Bangalore and Mysore as suggested by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Limited (DMRCL) Principal Advisor E Sreedharan recently.
“Since Bangalore-Mysore corridor is included in the Railways’ plan, the State government can always use the feasibility report if necessary. If the Railways’ plan fails to materialise, then the government can take appropriate steps to implement a separate Bangalore-Mysore high-speed project by making use of the Railways’ report,” Khatri said.
Sreedharan, who is also called as Metro man, had in a recent letter to Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda, said a high-speed corridor between Bangalore and Mysore is justified and offered the DMRCL’s assistance in framing terms and conditions for conducting the feasibility report.
The government was seriously planning to appoint a private firm to conduct feasibility study following Sreedharan’s letter. The chief minister’s office had directed the IDD to take appropriate steps in this regard.
Now, with the Railways’ move, the IDD has informed the government that it need not conduct a separate study. The corridor, according to Sreedharan, will have a total length of 110 km, instead of the present 139 km. Trains can be operated up to a speed of 350 km per hour and the distance can be covered within half an hour non-stop.
The feasibility report will bring out the technical standards to be adopted, the route to be followed, expected cost of the line, ridership forecast, funding options, financial viability, project completion period, institutional arrangements for implementation and legal cover necessary.
The proposed Chennai-Bangalore-Coimbatore- Ernakulam route is among six routes that the Railways has identified for implementing its high-speed train project.
The other routes are: Delhi-Chandigarh, Pune-Mumbai-Ahmedabad, Hyderabad-Vijawada-Chennai, Howrah- Haldia, and Delhi-Agra-Lucknow-Varanasi-Patna. The Railways intends to run high-speed passenger trains at about 250 kmph on these routes. Currently, trains run at a maximum speed of 160 kmph.
On fast track
* Railways okays feasibility study on running high speed train on proposed Chennai-Bangalore-Coimbatore- Ernakulam route.
* The route includes Bangalore-Mysore corridor.
* The State govt, as a result, will not conduct a separate feasibility study on the corridor.
* E Sreedharan had suggested govt to conduct feasibility study on Bangalore-Mysore corridor.
