The Hindu : Spanish expertise sought for high speed rail corridor

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 14, 2003

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National

Spanish expertise sought for high speed rail corridor

By Our Special Correspondent

AHMEDABAD MAY 13 . The Railway Ministry is holding negotiations with the Spanish Railways for setting up the country's first ``high speed railway corridor,'' the Railway Minister, Nitish Kumar, has said.

He said it was possible that the corridor could be set up between Ahmedabad and Mumbai, because the route had good traffic potential, but a decision on this account could be taken only after proper survey.

Mr. Kumar was speaking to presspersons here, after the inauguration simultaneously of four railway projects, by the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani.

He said the Spanish Railways had shown interest in providing both technical and financial assistance to set up India's first `high speed' corridor, but the project involved huge investments. He said that the proposed Ahmedabad-Mumbai corridor alone would require about Rs. 30,000 crores.

This would mean that the Railway Ministry would have to suspend other developmental projects all over the country to build the corridor.

Mr. Kumar said steps were being taken to increase the speed of passenger trains. The first such experiment would be in the Konkan sector, where the trains would run at 150 km per hour. Increasing speed in other sectors, was also under study. He said satellite railway stations would be set up in some of the main cities where the existing stations were congested.

In Delhi, it was planning to develop Anand Vihar after old Delhi, New Delhi and Nizamuddin stations and in Ahmedabad, steps to develop Sabarmati and Gandhinagar as satellite stations were on, he said.

Earlier, Mr. Advani, inaugurated the Surendranagar-Pipavav railway track, the first joint sector project in Railways. He also laid the foundation stone for the Gandhinagar-Kalol line, which would eventually connect Gujarat's state capital with the national capital. He also inaugurated the newly- formed Ahmedabad railway division and launched the computerised railway booking centre in Vastrapur, Ahmedabad.

Calling for private sector participation in railway projects, Mr. Advani said it was good that people have started realising that the Government alone could not solve all their problems.

. The Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, and the Minister of State for Railways, A. K. Moorthy, were also present.

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