India’s Second Bullet Train Corridor? High-Speed Track To Come Up Along The New Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway

The Indian Railways and the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways are coming together to build a high-speed rail line along the proposed expressway between Mumbai and Nagpur, Financial Express has reported.

According to the daily’s report, which quotes a senior Railway Ministry official, a feasibility study conducted by Spanish consultant Ineco on the constructing a high-speed rail line along the proposed expressway has yielded positive results.

The accusation of land, which is one of the most problematic parts of executing an infrastructure project, will become easier as the two agencies plan to coordinate their efforts. Many infrastructure projects, including the Mumbai-Ahmadabad High-Speed Rail Corridor, have been delayed due to issues related to land accusation.

“It’s a new way of executing the project faster, as the combined efforts to acquire land will ease a major burden for both ministries and pave the way for speedy execution,” the daily quoted the Railway official as saying.

Joint working in the planning phase and construction of bridges and underpasses is expected to save time and lower expenditure for the two.

According to the feasibility report, an elevated rail line can be built in the middle or along the 800 km expressway depending on the ground situation.

With the elevated track ensuring an uninterrupted high-speed journey, travel time between Mumbai and Nagpur will be drastically reduced.

The Mumbai-Nagpur high-speed rail corridor will be a part of the Howrah-Mumbai section of the diamond quadrilateral rail project.

According to The Tribune, the Centre has agreed to rope in Japan’s International Co-operation Agency (JICA) to fund this project on terms and conditions similar to the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train. The JICA is funding 80 per cent of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project through a soft loan of Rs 79,000 crore to be repaid over 50 years at an interest rate of 0.1 per cent.