Work begins on Mumbai-Nagpur bullet train as Ahmedabad line in limbo

From the present 11 hours to cover the 753km distance that it takes today for the fastest railway train to travel between Mumbai and Nagpur the two important cities of Maharashtra the bullet train promises to cut it down by half by travelling at a speed of 320kmper hour covering the entire journey in six hours flatAfter the MumbaiAhmedabad bullet train the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited NHSRCL on Tuesday begun work MumbaiNagpur bullet train with officials scrambling to gather documents and maps to prepare a detailed project reportTenders were floated for the work of survey identification of utilities and power sourcing options for substations along the proposed MumbaiNashikNagpur High Speed Rail corridor This will help immensely in preparing the Detailed Project Report for the project and assess the area the pathway and other technicalities a top official said The report will also include identification of locations for railway stations land required for construction of railway lines and station premisesAlso ReadMaharashtra 32 magnitude earthquake hits NashikHe said trains would be operated at a tentative speed of 320kmph along the stretch once it is up and running with seamless connectivity between the MumbaiAhmedabad corridor too However the topography and other elements will be crucial elements in determining the final speedThe existing fastest train between the two cities is the MumbaiNagpur Duronto Express that approximately takes 11 hours with an average overall speed of 65kmph and passes through the toughest mountains and Ghat sections near Igatpuri Project reports are also being prepared for DelhiVaranasi 865km DelhiAhmedabad 886km ChennaiMysore 435km DelhiAmritsar 459 km MumbaiHyderabad 711 km and VaranasiHowrah 760 km highspeed railway corridorsThe railways have been looking at increasing sectional speed along the existing rail corridors too but as High Speed Railway trains will exceed 300 kmph it will be a separate corridor with standard gauge trainsThe Maharashtra Rail Infrastructure Development Company is also parallelly developing a parallel PuneNashik semihighspeed corridor separately along with the existing railway corridorStatus of MumbaiAhmedabad corridorThe MumbaiAhmedabad corridor is likely to be delayed and miss the existing deadline of 2023 due to land acquisition issues and Covid19 pandemic The 50817km network has been planned to be passing through three districts in Maharashtra Mumbai Thane and Palghar and eight districts in Gujarat Valsad Navsari Surat Bharuch Vadodara Anand Kheda and Ahmedabad Railway board chairman Vinod Yadav last week said so far 63 percent land had been acquired for the project with 82 percent acquired in Gujarat and 23 per cent in Maharashtra Sources added that the Maharashtra governments stand on the issue may also lead to issues The present Maharashtra government has said they will review the existing the entire project as a part of the wider audit of infrastructure projectsKeep scrolling to read more newsCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and a complete guide from food to things to do and events across Mumbai Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest news