No bullet trains anytime soon, says Railways minister

The Railways Minister in his budget speech announced that they would be studying the possibility of introducing six high-speed passenger trains but said they would be unlikely without financial support from the Centre. “As decided earlier, pre-feasibility studies on six corridors have already been taken up,”  Railways Minister Dinesh Trivedi said in this budget speech. The Railways is studying a possible high-speed corridor between Delhi-Jodhpur via Jaipur and had already carried out a study to have a high-speed train between Pune and Ahmedabad via Mumbai. [caption id=“attachment_244239” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“The high speed-railway project was first announced in 2007 by the then railways minister Lalu Prasad Yadav. Representative image. Reuters”]  [/caption] “However, the high speed corridors are highly capital intensive and resource issues need to be addressed with innovative funding mechanism and significant government support to make them a reality,” Trivedi said. The high speed-railway project was first announced in 2007 by the then railways minister Lalu Prasad Yadav. However, after five years, there has been little development apart from feasibility studies.