India plans to connect Mumbai with Hyderabad, Nagpur via bullet trains

Pune - Once the service becomes operational, the travel time between Mumbai and Hyderabad will be reduced from 15 hours to around three hours

Plans are afoot to connect the western Indian megapolis of Mumbai with cities such as Hyderabad and Nagpur via a bullet train link.

The move comes amid the country’s maiden bullet train project, which seeks to link Mumbai with Ahmedabad and whizzing commuters on the 500km route in a little over two hours, is still being bogged down by controversies and an inordinately delayed launch.

Officials from the National High Speed Rail Corporation Ltd (NHSRCL) met residents along the proposed Mumbai-Hyderabad high-speed rail (HSR) corridor on September 27 to discuss the acquisition of 1,200 hectares (ha) of land for the ambitious project.

An NHSRCL spokesperson, who is based in New Delhi, told Khaleej Times that the team would submit an elaborate report to the Narendra Modi-led government on the proposed new links.

It is estimated that the travel time between Mumbai and Ahmedabad and Nagpur and Hyderabad are expected to be reduced drastically following the execution of these three projects.

The distance between Mumbai and Nagpur and from Mumbai to Hyderabad is about 750 and over 700 km, respectively.

At present, it takes about 15 hours to cover the distance between Mumbai and Hyderabad, which will eventually be reduced to only around three hours after the bullet train service becomes operational.

The bullet train’s fare on this route will be around 1.5 times of the existing one.

The maximum and the average speed of the train is pegged at around 350kmph and 250kmph, respectively.

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An NHSRCL official said the proposed new rail route would be passing through largely uninhabited areas, and as a result, could lead to a quicker completion of the project. The bullet service on this stretch may become operational sooner than expected.

Originally, the Mumbai-Hyderabad project was to be completed by 2023, but the raging Covid-19 pandemic led to further delays and could see the light of the day by 2025.

Meanwhile, the Maharashtra Rail Infrastructure Development Corporation and the Indian Railways are also planning to develop semi high-speed train corridors between Mumbai and Pune, which is likely to reduce the travel time between the twin cities from three hours to only 90 minutes.

• India