In a major boost to the rail infra sector, the railway minister has announced to build as many as five high-speed corridors across regions including Agra-Varanasi, Delhi-Chandigarh and Mumbai-Bengaluru corridor, among others, the concerned minister said, adding that a high-speed or possibly even semi-high speed train will run between Agra and Varanasi injecting a major fillip to the transport sector of Uttar Pradesh. The railway minister announced that the land acquisition for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train corridor would be completed by December this year. He further stated that the national transporter was taking time because it wants to engage land owners and hold dialogue for acquisition in order to take them into confidence. He also informed that to build a 27 km under-sea tunnel as part of the project, work related to designing and assembling machines is currently in full swing. The National High Speed Rail Corporation (NHSRCL), which is a special purpose vehicle of Indian Railways and the state governments of Gujarat and Maharashtra, is implementing the country's first bullet train project with technical and financial assistance from Japan. The corridor, which would be 508.17-km long, covers a distance of 348.04 km in Gujarat, 155.76 km in Maharashtra and 4.3 km in Dadra and Nagar Haveli and that the project is being executed at an approximate cost of ₹1.08 lakh crore.
