NHSRCL floats tenders for 865-km long high-speed rail line

The National High-Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) has invited bids for preparing DPR for the 865-km long and the second Delhi-Varanasi high-speed rail corridor in the country. The bullet train will reach Delhi from Varanasi in four-and-a-half hours, once completed. As per the bid report, this will include the preparation of drawings of all the crossing bridges expected in the corridor i.e. over rivers, other rail routes, and highways, and drawings of the proposed stations and maintenance depots within the next three months. This high-speed rail corridor will have four stations including Noida, Agra, Kanpur and Lucknow. The railway is proposing six new high-speed rail corridors, including the Delhi-Varanasi corridor, to meet the growing passenger demand and to optimize the high-speed rail connectivity between major cities, commercial and economic activity centres. The other five corridors are projected between Delhi-Ahmedabad (886 km), Delhi-Amritsar (459 km), Mumbai-Nashik-Nagpur (753 km), Mumbai-Pune-Hyderabad (711 km) and Chennai-Bengaluru-Mysore (435 km). The National High-Speed Rail Corporation informed that the project, apart from signifying a technological marvel, will save travel time, vehicle operation cost, reduction in pollution, job creation, reduction in accidents and enhanced safety, imported fuel substitution and reduction in pollutants.