Ahmedabad, 23 January 2014

According to this Mid-Day report, the railways are planning on the country’s first high-speed rail corridor starting from Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) in Mumbai to Ahmedabad. On January 21, authorities from the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and officials from Indian Railways had several meetings. The proposed route for this Rs 60,000-crore project would begin from BKC, going right up to Thane on the central line. From here, there will be a diversion on the Trans-Harbour route which is on the Thane-Diva-Vasai-Virar stretch. As it switches over to the Western line, from here the rail route will go across to the neighbouring state and touch Ahmedabad. The special air-conditioned bullet trains are likely to run at 320 kmph or more, which would enable people to cover the 500-km distance (approximately) faster. Presently, it takes close to six hours to cover this distance, with the train travelling at a top speed of around 150 kmph. The high-speed rail corridor on this route could cover the same distance in around 2-2.5 hours or so. There would be a minimum distance of 50 km between two railway stations.