Bullet trains should be made affordable to all: Pawan Kumar Bansal

NEW DELHI: Reluctant to draw a timeline for the launch of bullet trains in the country, Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal today said they need to be made affordable for common man and not just for the premier travellers.

"It will be difficult to say when we will have bullet trains. But we have started some preliminary work on it. Our aim is to make tangible progress but not possible to give a timeline for it," he said on the proposed high speed rail corridor project.

He said, "This is an aspirational project which involves high cost. High speed trains at 350 kmph speed is our aspirational project and we have selected Mumbai-Ahmedabad route as a pilot project," Bansal said at a seminar here.

"But the cost involved in the 534-km long Mumbai-Ahemedabad project is gigantic high. It is estimated to cost about Rs 63,000 crore," he said.

He said high speed trains should not remain confine to a particular class but should be "affordable for all".

"This must be made affordable for common man and it should not be only for premier class," Bansal said.

Railways have identified seven routes for conducting pre-feasibility study for high speed corridors including Delhi-Agra-Patna, Howrah-Haldia, Chennai-Bangalore-Thiruvanathapuram and Pune-Mumbai-Ahmedabad.

"Since it has to be executed with the participation of private players, finalisation of revenue models for the proposed high speed corridors are very important. Whatever finance model will be, it should be win-win situation for all of us," he said.

The seminar on High Speed Train in India: Issues and Options, was organised by the Institution of Railway Electrical Engineers.