Railways mull high-speed passenger train corridor in South

Chennai, Mar 29 (UNI) The Indian Railways is planning a high-speed passenger train corridor linking Chennai, Coimbatore, Bangalore and Ernakulam, Railway Board Chairman K C Jeena announced today.

Talking to reporters here, he said after getting the approval of the concerned states, a study would be undertaken by an international consultant.

It would come up under the public-private-partnership (PPP) mode.

He said this would be one of the six routes selected by the railways for the dedicated corridor which included Mumbai-Ahmedabad, Mumbai-Pune and Delhi-Amritsar.

Observing that the focus of the railways would be on dedicated high-speed freight corridors, Mr Jena said two such corridors would be undertaken with funding by international agencies.

The western corridor would be funded by the Japanese Government and the eastern corridor by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. ''The works will start in October-November'', he added.

An east-south freight corridor linking Kolkata and Chennai was also under study, Mr Jena said.

Mr Jena said all the meter guage sections in the Southern railway would be converted to broad guage by June this year, barring the Mettupalayam-Udhagamandalam section which would be preserved as a heritage line.

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