High-speed rail can be implemented in five years if BJP is in power, says E. Sreedharan

Technocrat E. Sreedharan has said that the high-speed rail line proposed by him could be completed in five years if there were BJP governments at the Centre and State.

Delivering a talk on high-speed rail line for Kerala, organised by the Institute of Engineers (India), Kerala State chapter, he said the project spanning over a distance of 465 kms from north to south could be completed in five years by dividing the entire length of the project into five sections.

A chief engineer would be in charge of each section, and 100 km of rail line could be constructed by each chief engineer in five years, said Mr. Sreedharan. The detailed project report (DPR) of the project could be completed in 3-4 months. However, a dedicated government at the State and Centre is highly imperative for this, where the BJP is more ideal to execute the project than any other government. In the case of other governments, it cannot be guaranteed, he said.

The high-speed railway line conceived from Thiruvananthapuram Central to Kannur can be covered in 3 hours 20 minutes with 20 intermediate stations, including two terminal stations, as well as linking three airports directly and Kannur Airport with dedicated electric vans from the high-speed railway station. He also maintained that the ticket fare for the high-speed rail would be cheaper than Vande Bharat train services. A chair car ticket to Ernakulam from Thiruvananthapuram would be charged only ₹440 as against the Vande Bharat ticket fare of ₹690.

Similarly, the ticket to Kozhikode from Thiruvananthapuram will cost only ₹640 compared to the ₹1,225 on the Vande Bharat train. The proposed high-speed rail reduced the capital investment by 20 % by reducing the axle load of the line, which will be only 16 tonnes, as against 25 tonnes of normal broad gauge lines. This will make the largely elevated structures (about 445 kms on pillars and 20 kms to be underground) very light and sleek, saving in cost by over 20%, he said.

In the case of operational speed, he said, although the designed speed will be 200 km per hour with a maximum operating speed of 180 km, the average commercial speed, allowing for acceleration, deceleration, and station stoppages, will be 158 km per hour. However, this is enough to traverse the entire distance in 3 hours and 20 minutes, he said. If implemented, this would be the first complete green energy-powered high-speed rail line in the country, with energy being obtained through solar farms set up on station tops and depots and along the 20-metre width of land available for the project, he said.

Although trains are suggested to run at intervals of 30 minutes during peak hours and one hour during non-peak hours in the first phase, the intervals between trains can also be brought down to 5 minutes when initial traffic capacity is reached. In such a case, the total carrying capacity of the line will be more than 5 lakhs on this line per day, he said.