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From Chandigarh to Delhi in 50
minutes!
WSN Network
NEW DELHI: The
Indian Railways has started work to give shape to an ambitious
high-speed train project that would cut journey time from Delhi to
Chandigarh or Amritsar by many times.
The journey to Chandigarh from New Delhi will take 50 minutes. Work
on the nuts and bolts of the proposal has been started. The first
pre-bid conference to construct the High Speed Passenger Railway
corridor on the DelhiChandigarh-Amritsar route will be held on
Thursday, the Hindustan Times reported.
It quoted the officials as saying that the speed or bullet trains
would travel at 300-350 kmph, and the fares could even be cheaper
than those of budget airlines. Sample surveys on the proposed
corridor have indicated people have shown a "willingness to pay",
the officials said. Possibly it comes from the frustration, of
delays at the airport due to air traffic congestion among other
reasons.
The railways, which plans to develop the project with private
partnership, has identified four other routes to run these high
speed trains. The routes are Pune-MumbaiAhmedabad, Haldia-Howrah,
HyderabadDornakal-Vijaywada-Chennai and Chennai-Bangalore-Coimbatore-Ernakulam.
For the Delhi-Chandigarh-Amritsar corridor, the proposal due date
for bidders has been fixed on May 6. Contractors will be selected
through an international competitive bidding process. For the other
corridors, the railways will invite global tenders separately.
23 April 2008
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