Gowda announces Bullet Trains, high-speed Diamond Quadrilateral Network

Presenting the Railway Budget 2014-15 in Parliament, he said, the Railways proposes bullet trains by starting off with an already identified Mumbai-Ahmedabad sector, where a number of studies have been done.

The Minster said, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modiji, the Railways is embarking on an ambitious plan to have a Diamond Quadrilateral Network of High Speed Rail, connecting major Metros and growth centers of the country. A provision of Rs.100 crore has been made in the Budget for high Speed project to RVNL/HSRC (High Speed Rail Corridor) for taking further steps.

He said, while bullet trains would require completely new infrastructure, higher speed for existing trains will be achieved by upgrading the present network. The Minister said, hence, an effort will be made to increase the speed of trains to 160-200 kmph in select sectors so as to significantly reduce travel time between major cities. The Minister said, the identified sectors are:

i) Delhi-Agra
ii) Delhi-Chandigarh
iii) Delhi-Kanpur
iv) Nagpur-Bilaspur
v) Mysore-Bengaluru-Chennai
vi) Mumbai-Goa
vii) Mumbai-Ahmedabad
viii) Chennai-Hyderabad and
ix) Nagpur-Secunderabad.