Six additional corridors have been identified by the Indian Railways for high speed and semi-high speed corridors, according to a PTI report that quoted the Chairman of the Railway Board, Vinod Kumar Yadav.
List of Possible New Corridors
- Delhi-Noida-Agra-Lucknow-Varanasi (865 km)
- Delhi-Jaipur-Udaipur-Ahmedabad (886 km)
- Mumbai-Nashik-Nagpur (753 km)
- Mumbai-Pune-Hyderabad (711 km)
- Chennai-Bangalore-Mysore (435 km)
- Delhi-Chandigarh-Ludhiana-Jalandhar-Amritsar (459 km)
Detailed Project Reports (DPR) for these corridors will be completed within the year. The DPR will make feasibility and other aspects clearer, after which the decision on making the corridor High Speed Rail (300 kph) or Semi High Speed Rail (160-200 kph) will be taken, according to the CRB.
However, little headway has been made on the routes that were announced for upgrades to semi high-speed rail services in the Railway Budget of 2015.
New Alignments Likely for High Speed Rail
The distances suggested for some corridors imply that these services may not upgrade the existing railway routes, but instead take new alignments. For example, the length of the existing railway route from Mumbai to Nagpur via Nashik is around 835 kilometres.
Land acquisition hurdles may follow, as with various projects currently underway, including the Mumbai Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail project.
It is not yet clear as to who will fund the construction of these lines if and when they are found feasible, and approved by the central government.