Uncertainty looms over proposed high-speed train

The proposed high-speed train between Mysuru and Chennai via Bengaluru remains uncertain as the Chinese team which inspected the route nearly three months ago is yet to give its report on the project’s feasibility.

The Chinese team was supposed to submit the report in two months though there was no official word on it. A senior official in the High Speed Rail Corporation (HSRC) hoped the report would come before the railway budget for 2015-16 scheduled for February 26.

The Chinese team, along with Indian experts, is to give inputs to the Ministry of Railways, after which a team of officials from the Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL) and the HSRC will visit China. A concrete blueprint for implementing the project will be prepared only after all the inputs are tabulated.

 A senior official in the RVNL said that the team had to keep in mind the limited resources of the railways while suggesting a solution.

But ‘Metro Man’ and now Principal Advisor to Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), Dr E Sreedharan, has criticised the decision to ask Chinese experts to do a feasibility study on the high-speed train.

In a statement, he stated that asking a team of Chinese experts for opinion was “unnecessary” as it was well-known that running a high-speed train on the existing alignment was unfeasible. He suggested that a more sensible proposal would be to run trains with a maximum speed of 200 kmph and choose an almost-straight, elevated alignment between Bengaluru and Mysuru to avoid large-scale land acquisition.

In September 2014, the Indian railways signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with China to increase the speed in its existing rail network, modernise stations and enhance mutual co-operation in this sector. The railways had identified some routes, including Mysuru-Bengaluru-Chennai, for increasing the speed up to 160 kmph with Chinese expertise.

A study conducted by the RVNL for the Mysuru-Bengaluru-Chennai line, however, suggested that achieving even a speed of 160 kmph was not possible due to curve restrictions and gauge conversion. The entire Bengaluru-Mysuru track, converted from metre gauge to broad gauge, has too many curve restrictions.

Given the high gradient and curvature on this line, a team of experts from the RVNL and the HSRC had decided to get rakes of 8-10 coaches, instead of 20-22 coaches, for the proposed high-speed train. Still, the train is most likely to run at a maximum speed of 135-140 km that will be still higher than the present 100 kmph.