Indian Railways proposes to build high-speed rail corridors

The Indian Railways on Friday in order to improve its modal share unveiled the National Rail plan. The railways in a statement said, "A long-term strategic plan called the National Rail Plan has been developed to plan infrastructural capacity enhancement along with strategies to increase the modal share of the Railways."

The draft plan included several new High-Speed Rail Corridors. As per the draft, several bullet train corridors have been identified, and a survey on Delhi-Varanasi High-Speed Rail already underway. The draft plan stated, "HSR Corridors as proposed as part of National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) have been reviewed with an objective of enhancing the outreach of HSR network and increasing the connectivity to cities of importance."

"Given the long lead time and inherent risk in high-speed rail investments, it is essential that suitable corridors are selected where the conditions exist to support strong passenger demand for high-speed services. In other words, it is critical to identify the corridors across the country with the maximum potential to support high-speed rail in order to minimize this investment risk," it added.

Check out the recommended High-Speed Rail (HSR) Corridors as per National Rail Plan (NRP):

1. Delhi- Chandigarh- Ludhiana - Jalandhar- Amritsar HSR Corridor is recommended to be extended to Jammu via Pathankot for enhancing regional connectivity. It will cater to the religious tourism potential of the Vaishno Devi Shrine and other places.

2. Delhi- Agra- Kanpur- Lucknow- Varanasi- HSR corridor is recommended to route via Ajodhya due to Religious Tourism Potential.

3. Delhi- Agra- Kanpur-Lucknow- Varanasi HSR corridor is also recommended to be extended to connect Patna and Kolkata.

4. Additional HSR Line from Patna to Guwahati via Katihar and New Jalpaiguri thereby connecting Guwahati with Delhi Varanasi Kolkata HSR Corridor.

5. Additional HSR Line between Hyderabad and Bengaluru by extending Mumbai Hyderabad HSR Line. This shall connect Mumbai with Chennai and also will bring North India from Jammu – Amritsar – Delhi – Jaipur – Ahmedabad – Mumbai – Hyderabad – Bengaluru – Chennai on HSR corridor and all the major towns of North, West and South India shall be connected with 1 HSR Corridor. 

6. Additional HSR line is proposed between Nagpur and Varanasi by extending the Mumbai – Nashik – Nagpur HSR Corridor. This shall connect Mumbai with Varanasi which will further connect with Delhi – Varanasi – Patna – Guwahati HSR corridor.