Chinese team in India to examine Delhi-Chennai high speed link contours

NEW DELHI : With the arrival of a six-member team from the China Railway Siyuan Survey and Design Group (CRSSD), the government’s ambitious plan of building the world’s second longest — and possibly the costliest — high speed line between Delhi and Chennai seems to be taking shape.

If the line is built, it will cut the travel time between both cities by approximately eight hours. The government envisages that trains travel through this 1,754 kilometre corridor at an average speed of 250 kmph. At the current rate, the cost of the project is estimated at over `2 lakh crore.

The CRSSD team, led by vicechief engineer Pan Guoqiang, is on a three-week tour to firm up the alignment of the proposed high speed corridor.

The team is scheduled to visit various locations, including Bhopal, Nagpur, Hyderabad and Chennai. “Currently, the team is touring Agra,” sources said.

It is indicated that the line will be marginally shorter than the world’s longest high speed that covers 1,931 kilometres between Beijing and Guangzhou — which a person can cover in eight hours.

The team will submit a prefeasibility report on the DelhiChennai line by July this year, while the Detailed Project Report is expected to be presented by August 2016. “If the plan is pursued, it will take approximately ten years to build the corridor,” sources said.

“The Chinese company is conducting the study for free for the Indian Railways, in line with the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the two countries in New Delhi on September 1 last in the presence of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian PM Narendra Modi,” said Satish Agnihotri, chairman of India’s High Speed Rail Corporation.