Railways to undertake pre-feasibility study for high-speed trains

New Delhi, Mar 15 (UNI) The Railway Ministry will undertake the pre-feasibility studies for construction of high speed corridors covering one route in each region of the country, namely, East, West, North and South.

In a written reply in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Railways R. Velu today said high Speed Trains running at speeds above 250 kmph require separate infrastructure including track, signalling, rolling stock and traction and cannot be run on the existing network of Indian Railways.

He said construction of dedicated high speed corridors require high capital investment ranging from Rs. 50 crore per kilometre to above Rs 200 crores per km.

Replying to another query, he said a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed on July 3 last year between Indian Railways and Ferrovie Dello Stato (Italian Railways) to promote bilateral cooperation in the rail sector.

Similar agreements have been signed with German Railways, Russian Railways, South African Railways and French Railways during the last three years.

UNI