Reality check on high-speed dream

JAYANTA ROY CHOWDHURY

Railway minister Dinesh Trivedi in New Delhi on Tuesday. Picture by Ramakant Kushwaha

New Delhi, March 13: Railway minister Dinesh Trivedi has a dream project — a network of high-speed rails for the country which could see a bullet train linking Calcutta with Haldia.

But, for now, his budget tomorrow will have to focus on safety and funding options for the cash-strapped lifeline of the nation.

However, the rail budget will mention his dream project, which cannot take off because of the lack of ready money.

On February 29, a Japanese delegation made a presentation on high-speed trains before Trivedi. "It was very impressive," Trivedi told The Telegraph, shortly after.

The minister, who will be presenting his maiden budget, said candidly, "My funds are for the basics… I am interested in high-speed trains… but we have to work out a funding route."

Top railway officials said high-speed trains were on the cards but could not be the crux of the budget, given the fact that a kilometre of elevated tracks could cost about Rs 100 crore. Even surface tracks, which can support trains running at about 200 kilometres an hour, require a spend of Rs 10 crore-a-kilometre.

The railways have done some preliminary work on the high-speed networks. A Spanish consortium comprising Ineco, Prointec and Ayesa in its report for the 135km Calcutta-Haldia stretch has said it is possible to have trains running 250-300 kilometres per hour.

Besides Calcutta-Haldia, the consortium has the mandate to prepare reports for five stretches: Delhi-Chandigarh-Amritsar; Pune-Mumbai-Ahmedabad; Hyderabad-Vijaywada-Chennai; Chennai-Bangalore-Ernakulam; and Delhi-Agra-Varanasi-Patna.

In fact, the railways had identified the stretches when Mamata Banerjee was heading the ministry. While presenting the budget in 2010, Banerjee had proposed the high-speed networks in partnership with state governments and private entrepreneurs.

After her announcement, the ministry started working on a cabinet note for a National High Speed Authority to implement and monitor the projects.

Railway officials say the trains can cut down a typical six to seven-hour of travel time to two-three hours.

Carbon emissions can be 7.7 times less than planes and 4.5 times less than cars. Besides, the networks will use 30 per cent of the land needed for expressways.

"It's costly, but it could be viable on routes with heavy traffic with high-speed travel time of up to 2-3 hours, as the ticket prices would still be lower than air fare," said R.C. Acharya, former member, the Indian Railway Board.

Many proposals

Kerala had separately approached the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) for a network connecting Kasargode to Thiruvananthapuram. Rajasthan, too, is working on a proposal for a line from Delhi to Kota passing through Jaipur and Ajmer.

Officials say the Prime Minister's Office is taking the initiative and wants to have at least one demonstration service.

Neighbouring China has the Shanghai Maglev Train which has a top speed of 430 kilometres per hour, while most of its other networks has trains running at 200-300 kilometres per hour.

Japan's Shninkansen, or bullet train, runs at top speeds of 300 kilometres per hour. US, Spain, France, Germany and Russia have trains running at speeds between 200 kilometres per hour and 570 kilometres per hour.

India, many analysts say, needs to bridge the technology gap in this field as other Asian rivals have done.