GUWAHATI: A new draft National Rail Plan (NRP) has proposed to connect all cities in India by 2051, which also includes Guwahati.
In the next few years, traveling at 300 km / h would not be a surprising feat.
The goal is to meet the growing passenger demand and optimize high-speed rail connectivity between major cities / commercial / economic centers.
The corridors are more or less the same as those proposed as part of the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP). Additionally, certain extensions / new corridors have been proposed to improve high-speed rail (HSR) range and provide connectivity to other cities:
1. It is recommended to extend the HSR Delhi- Chandigarh- Ludhiana – Jalandhar- Amritsar corridor to Jammu via Pathankot to improve regional connectivity and to give an economic boost to the Jammu and Pathankot region. It will address the religious tourism potential of the Vaishno Devi Shrine and other locations.
2. The Delhi-Agra-Kanpur-Lucknow-Varanasi HSR corridor is recommended to pass through Ayodhya due to the potential for religious tourism.
3. It is also recommended to expand the Delhi-Agra-Kanpur-Lucknow-Varanasi HSR corridor to connect Patna and Kolkata.
4. Additional HSR line from Patna to Guwahati via Katihar and New Jalpaiguri, thus connecting Guwahati with the HSR Delhi Varanasi Kolkata corridor.
5. Additional HSR line between Hyderabad and Bengaluru by expanding the HSR Mumbai Hyderabad line. This will connect Mumbai with Chennai and will also bring North India from Jammu – Amritsar – Delhi – Jaipur – Ahmedabad – Mumbai – Hyderabad – Bengaluru – Chennai in the HSR corridor and all major cities in North, West and South India will be connected with 1 HSR Corridor.
6. An additional HSR line between Nagpur and Varanasi is proposed by widening the HSR Mumbai – Nashik – Nagpur corridor. This will connect Mumbai with Varanasi, which will also connect with the HSR Delhi – Varanasi – Patna – Guwahati corridor.
HSR’s proposed master plan will bring all major cities to the HSR network, the NRP report indicated.
“This plan would take time to implement in Guwahati as the concept of running a bullet train is different. We currently have diesel powered tracks and we have to electrify them first. We are currently trying to run an electric train from Guwahati to Rangia in March of next year, “Nripen Bhattacharya, PRO of NF Railways, told G Plus.
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