As stated and depicted in a French based report, it has been determined that the total cost that will incur in the 200 kmph Delhi Chandigarh rail corridor, will be about Rs. 11,000 Crore or $ 1.7 billion. This report is been drafted and finally been submitted to Indian Railways by the French Railways SNCF. The amount Rs. 11k Crore is the cost that will get incurred in the Delhi Chandigarh rail corridor, meant to raise the train speed to about 200 kmph just considering the ease and convenience of travellers. In accord to this report, passengers can travel the same distance in between Delhi and Chandigarh in about 2 hours of time in this express. Delhi Chandigarh corridor is been always reckoned among the busiest routes across the Northern India and it is about 245 km stretch.
The project is referred to be the first semi high speed project taken up by the respected state owned transporter in order to facilitate trains at its optimal. The report is 1700 pages long and now it is up to Indian Railways to go for any finalization in Indian Railways and on Monday, they will go through the documents and draw and take the major actions to take the concern forward, as per the sources. When the project will get formally introduced, the honourable French President Emmanuel Macron is going to expect the country India next year in January 2018. Also, Indian Railways is believed to sign a MoU with the French Railways SNCF next year focusing on the scope and pointers of cooperation covering the safety, training of drivers of semi high speed trains and so in the rail sector.
As mentioned in the report, the total time span at which it will run will be of 2 hours and 2 minutes with a maximum speed of 200 kmph. Two halts will be there during the excursion and they will be at Ambala and Panipat. At present, Shatabdi express which is been running with a maximum speed of 110 kmph in between Delhi and Chandigarh covers the distance in 3 hours and 30 minutes of time. SNCF has also submitted the execution model as well as strategy including the detailed project running cost, upgrade of the route, technical parameters, cost analysis and so. The total estimate that is been determined is of about Rs. 11,218 Crore and that will cover the main civil works, cost of signal upgrade, rolling stock amon etc. From both ends, a discussion will get conducted in between the senior officials and they will analyze the report and decide on the final cost, as stated by a Senior Railway Ministry official. Because of the 20 major curves on the 32.7 km stretch and existing rail route, re-alignment will get placed and no acquisition of fresh land will take place at all. Apart from this, there will be enhancements and upgrades over 7 other routes as well totalling the distance to 4000 km covering Nagpur – Secunderabad, Mysuru – Chennai, Mumbai – Goa, Chennai – Hyderabad and Delhi – Kanpur. This Delhi – Chandigarh route is been expected to be going a demonstrative project, as per the report and officials.