New Delhi : The Central Government has announced grand plans for the mega high-speed rail connectivity but the Railway Ministry is yet to sanction over seven much-talked-about high-speed rail (HSR) corridors in the absence of a detailed project report (DPR). Presently, the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail (MAHSR) project is the only sanctioned high-speed rail project in the country which is under execution with the financial and technical assistance of the Government of Japan.
"Although the railway ministry has assigned the task of preparing DPR of seven high-speed rail corridors to National High-Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL), they are yet to submit the reports," a senior government official privy to the development told ETV Bharat on Friday. The NHSRCL has finalised the DPR of the Delhi-Varanasi high-speed train and submitted it to the railway ministry.
Being highly capital-intensive projects, according to the official, the decision to sanction any HSR corridor and projects depends on many factors such as the outcome of DPR, techno-economic feasibility, availability of resources and financing options. "The DPR of Delhi-Varanasi, Delhi-Ahmedabad, Delhi-Amritsar, Mumbai-Nagpur, Mumbai-Pune-Hyderabad, Chennai-Bengalore-Mysore and Varanasi-Howrah are in different stages of study," the official said.