RailEnquiry

LUCKNOW: The railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal inaugurated a two day 'international seminar' on "high speed trains in India - issues and options" organised by the Institute of Railway Electrical Engineers (IREE), on Saturday. The minister of state for railways Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and chairman, railway board, Vinay Mittal were present on the occasion.

Bansal said that in view of growing economy, there is a need to constantly improve infrastructure and address the issues of mobility of people. It is necessary to keep pace with the latest developments taking place world over in railway sector and technology. Referring to his own experience of high-speed train travel in Japan, Korea and France,

The minister said it is high time to think of such rail projects in India as well. The rapid urbanization, growing economy, rising level of educated work force and higher levels of income margins has caused greater growth in intercity travel both for business and personal reasons. Hence, high speed train services may be required to fulfill the demand gap for faster intercity and inter-regional movement of passenger traffic.

The Minister pointed out that six corridors have been identified for techno-economic feasibility studies. The pre-feasibility reports, in respect of these identified corridors are at various stages of preparation and study. Government has already identified Mumbai-Ahmedabad high speed corridor, as the pilot project of this kind. A Project Steering Group has been constituted which is examining the options available for this project and finalizing feasible options and also suggesting mechanisms for quickly moving forward.

He said that this project needs an estimated Rs 63,000 crore investment and it is really a challenging task and 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 but in the Indian context a model needs to be worked out which makes it more affordable to bulk of the customers so that the introduction of high speed rail system in India becomes truly inclusive.

The minister hoped that the seminar with the participation from national and international experts will yield useful recommendations and discuss all relevant issues and all options available on the subject of high speed train services especially in the Indian context.