10.8.12

Kolkata - Haldia Bullet train snippets

In a state where a sizeable chunk of the population supports the decision not to raise train fares, will people be ready to shell out Rs 1,000 or more to cover the 135-odd kilometres between Haldia and Kolkata in less than an hour? This is the question doing the rounds, now that the Spanish consortium engaged by the Indian Railways to conduct a prefeasibility study on a highspeed railway corridor between Kolkata and Haldia has stated that it is possible to run trains between the two locations at 200-300 km per hour. 
The ministry of railways, in consultation with state governments, proposed high speed corridors between Delhi-Chandigarh-Amritsar, Pune-Mumbai-Ahmedabad, Hyderabad-Dornakal-Vijaywada-Chennai, Chennai-Bangalore-Coimbatore-Ernakulum, Howrah-Haldia and Delhi-Agra-Lucknow-Varanasi-Patna. It was also proposed to set up a National High Speed Rail Authority (NHSRA) for planning, standard setting, implementing and monitoring these projects. It was estimated that the con
struction cost per km would be Rs 75-100 crore. Though Haldia is an industrial township and there is a demand for better connectivity from Kolkata, officials aren’t sure whether this ambitious project will be financially viable. In the past, a catamaran service between Kolkata and Haldia had to be closed down due to lack of adequate patronage. 

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