India’s high-speed train in the offing

China is currently conducting a feasibility study for the $36 billion, 1,754-km Delhi-Chennai high-speed corridor.

 XI’AN: With Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Xi’an, all eyes are on the major outcomes from this visit. The two countries are expected to sign a major memorandum on expanding cooperation in the building of a high- speed rail corridor between Delhi and Chennai.

For the People’s Republic of China, building the world’s largest superfast rail network has been closely linked to the country’s booming global ambition.
In the early 1990s, the average passenger train in China ran at a speed of only 48 kilometres per hour.
Roads were badly congested and people were forced to fly even for short journeys. It was in 1999 that China began building its first high-speed rail corridor.
Within 15 years, China built a national network that is bigger than all the highspeed corridors of the world put together.
At the time of Independence, India’s rail network was nearly 54,000 km; while China’s rail network was only of 27,000 km. But since then, China has nearly quadrupled its rail network to about 110,000 km; while India has added barely 11,000 km of track in the same period.
When PM Modi announced his wish for a high-speed rail corridor linking India’s biggest cities, questions were asked about whether it’s worth spending so much on the project.
Even in China, it was widely debated as to whether it was worth investing huge sums of money on the project.
According to conservative estimates, the total cost of China’s high-speed rail corridor has been to the tune of $300 billion.
China’s early high- speed trains were imported or built under technology transfer agreements with foreign firms like Alstom, Siemens, Bombardier and Kawasaki Heavy Industries.
Chinese engineers then re-designed the train components and built indigenous trains that can reach operational speeds of up to 380 kmph. The average speed on these trains at present is 200 kilometres per hour.
In the run up to Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Beijing, Chinese authorities have been pushing for a pilot project to showcase the country’s high- speed prowess to India. China is currently conducting a feasibility study for the $36 billion, 1,754-km Delhi-Chennai high- speed corridor. China wants to speed up implementation of a shorter high-speed rail corridor from Chennai to Bengaluru and from Delhi to Agra, even while the feasibility study continues.
Key decision A study done by the World Bank says that Chinese projects are one- third cheaper than the high-speed projects by other countries.
But, India needs to decide whether it is prepared to entrust an infrastructure sector with grave national security ramifications to Chinese companies.
Days ahead of Modi’s visit, the Chinese ambassador to India has announced that deals worth US $10 billion are expected to be signed this week.