Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: Indians may soon be able to travel in a bullet train. Ways to facilitate a high speed corridor is being considered. If this happens then India will join a handful of countries in the world which will have a high speed train.
The Indian Railway Construction Company have zeroed on British company Mott MacDonald to lay down tracks between Delhi-Agra-Lucknow, Varanasi and Patna for the high speed train. The British Company is expected to submit a report for the 993 KM long corridor by the end of 2011. The cost of just the report is said to be around 8.8 crore. The report will dwell on the technology to run the bullet train, the finance involved for the project and so on.
If all goes well, then a 16 hour train journey will be reduced to 2 to 5 hours. While, Delhi to Agra can be covered in an hour’s time, Delhi to Lucknow can be reached in approximately two and a half hours. Delhi to Varanasi can be reached in four hours and Delhi to Patna can be covered in 5 hours. These trains will run at a speed of 200 to 350 KM per hour.
The first high-speed corridor will come up till Patna, which then will be extended till Kolkota. According to the British company the estimated cost of Delhi to Patna route will be around 5 lakh crore. And according to another estimation, the laying down of track per one-kilometer for the high speed train will cost Rs six crore. But going ahead the cost of running a bullet train may come to Rs 70 core for one KM.
If the dream becomes a reality then the journey undertaken by a plane can be enjoyed by a train.
