The final feasibility reports for the three high speed rail lines—commonly called bullet trains—from Mumbai to Chennai, Delhi and Nagpur will likely be submitted by early January next year, Railway Ministry officials said.
According to a railway official, the second interim report for the Mumbai-Delhi HSR was submitted in August, and the first interim report of the Mumbai-Nagpur HSR was submitted in July.
If all goes according to plan, the first of the preliminary geo-technical studies, and the like, could begin in the latter half of 2017 or 2018, said officials. The biggest part of all these lines would be the financial viability and whether they could obtain the kind of loan that the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has extended to the Mumbai-Ahmedabad HSR. The Rs 97,636 crore Mumbai-Ahmedabad HSR has been sanctioned a Rs 79,165-crore loan from JICA, which constitutes 81 per cent of the total construction cost.
"It is too early to say because besides the technical feasibility, the lines have commercial value. Also, high-speed rail networks are high-maintenance infrastructure projects. The money spent on operating and maintaining them every two decades is equivalent to the money spent constructing them, which every 20 years takes up almost the same amount operating them," said an official.
The Mumbai-Nagpur HSR's feasibility is being studied by Spanish railway infrastructure firm Adif, partnered by Ineco. The Indian agency involved in the study is High Speed Rail Corporation.
The Mumbai-Delhi HSR line is being studied by the Third Railway Survey and Design Institute Group Corporation of China, Lahmeyer International India. The report for the Mumbai-Chennai HSR is being worked on by France's Systra, the Indian Railway engineering consultancy RITES and Ernst and Young.
