A high level committee chaired by
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh rejected
a proposal to built a Bullet Train
network in the nation for passenger
traffic but accepted the plan to built
a dedicated freight train corridor at
a projected cost estimate of USD 5.06
billion.
Currently, freight trains go at an
average of 25 kilometers an hour (kmph)
and have the last priority on the
tracks although they are the highest
revenue earner for the Indian
Railways. With this proposal, the
dedicated corridor will give the
freight trains the topmost priority
and trains can travel at 80-90 kmph.
Providing reasons for the rejection of
the new high-speed passenger corridor,
the Committee said that Bullet Trains
need newer coaches, locomotives, and
signaling. Moreover, the cost of
building a high-speed passenger
network will cost USD 15.7 million and
would cost USD 22.5 billion just for
the 2800 Mumbai-Delhi-Kolkata line.
Commemorating the 40th anniversary of
its Shinkansen (bullet train)
technology, Japan had offered help for
India to build a bullet-train network.
Indian Railways is the largest rail
company in the world in terms of
number of passengers it carries every
day and the size of the network.
