Ahmedabad, 24 November 2014

As per Hemant Kumar, General Manager of Western Railway’s talk with media persons at Vadodara, following is the status of High Speed Rail project on Ahmedabad-Mumbai line:

Present stage:

The Western Railway is awaiting clearance from the Commissioner of Railway Safety, for running trains on this high-speed corridor at 130 kmph. Successful trials are already carried out in this connection.

Rs 1100-crore speed improvement project is awaiting the Railway Board for approval, under which, the speed of some trains on this corridor will reach 160 kmph.

In future:

After approval from the Railway Board, the entire exercise can be completed in a year.The infrastructure improvement work on the high-speed corridor between Mumbai and Ahmedabad can be completed in five to six months after the contractors are appointed. The Western Railway will have to undertake improvement of tracks, barricading of vulnerable locations and regulating the over head equipment (OHE), among other things.

It will be done in two phases. In the first phase, only trains that run with LHB-designed fully air-conditioned coaches like Shatabdi, Duranto and Rajdhani will be able to attain the speed of 160 kmph while the increase in speed in other trains will be done in the second phase.

It is aimed at reducing travel time between two cities of Mumbai-Ahmedabad(493-km) by atleast two hours(presently it takes 7-8 hours).

The detailed study report of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad corridor is scheduled to be submitted in May 2015.

From Indo-French seminar in Delhi on High-Speed trains:

According to the findings of French railway operator SNCF, the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed train project can cost up to Rs. 70,000 to 90,000 crore, and will operate at a low internal rate of return of 2.4 per cent over the life!

Philippe Lorand, Senior VP-Business Development-India, South Asia and South East Asia, International Development Team, SNCF believes that even if the project were to be implemented through public-private partnership (PPP), at least 50 per cent of the cost will have to be borne by the Government, which comes to 35,000 to 45,000 crore. The annual capital expenditure of Indian Railways is about Rs.30,000 crore, including the dedicated freight corridor, according to MS Mathur, Executive Director – PPP, Railway Board. This mathematics will make it difficult for government to fund high-speed trains from current resources.

Girish Pillai, advisor infrastructure, Railway Board said that the Railways can run trains at 160 kmph by upgrading its current network at a cost of Rs. 2-4 crore per km while a high-speed line is expected to cost about Rs. 150 crore per km. SNCF has pointed out that India should consider both high-speed and semi-high-speed rail services, as the latter are much cheaper and can be put in place in three years.