High-speed trains in India viable after 10 years’

BANGALORE: Narendra Modi may want bullet trains for India but Alstom, builder of France’s TGV high-speed trains, believes the country is at least 5-10 years away from bullet trains. New Delhi should concentrate on increasing existing train speeds in a calibrated manner, including increasing average speeds from 80 to 120 kmph rather than thinking of 350 kmph, a senior company executive said.

“You (India) cannot do it (run bullet trains) in short-term,” said Henri Poupart-Lafarge, the head of Alstom’s transport unit.

“(It is) extremely important to upgrade the existing infrastructure. You should move from 60 to 70 to 80 (km/hr) and 100 to 120 (km/hr) and then in some corridors (after a few years) you could imagine running bullet trains,” Poupart- Lafarge said in an interview to ET.

BJP leaders in the past have repeatedly termed bullet train as a “dream project” of Modi and in the build-up to the upcoming national elections, the Gujarat chief minister too has repeatedly spoken on the need for connecting the four metropolitan cities with high-speed trains.

“When you talk of 500-600 kms you are talking of tens of billions of dollars. It takes a long time. At one point of time, you (will) need government funding. You need liquidity,” said Poupart- Lafarge.