Railways unveil high-speed lines along expressways

The Union railway and transport ministries have decided to build rail tracks for high-speed rails along the greenfield expressways across the country for integrated development of transport networks. Road and railway ministries have jointly set up a four-member task force to work out the modalities for acquiring land and sharing the cost. Chairman S S Sandhu informed that NHAI has agreed to the proposal and the agency can acquire land required for laying such railway lines which require 10-15 metres width. The railway board has given NHAI the details of seven high-speed rail corridors for running bullet trains for which the detailed project reports are being prepared. NHAI has been asked to depute a nodal officer for this purpose for better integration of the mammoth planning exercise. The seven high-speed rail corridors are Delhi to Varanasi via Noida, Agra and Lucknow; Varanasi to Howrah via Patna; Delhi to Ahmedabad via Jaipur and Udaipur; Delhi to Amritsar via Chandigarh, Ludhiana and Jalandhar; Mumbai to Nagpur via Nasik; Mumbai to Hyderabad via Pune and Chennai to Mysore via Bangalore.