"Lot more needs to be learnt": Vaishnaw on bullet trains

Story by IANS | Posted by Tripti Nath | Date 05-11-2022

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw

Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh)

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Saturday said while the country has made significant progress in bringing bullet trains to the country, a lot more needs to be learnt before the new technology is implemented in the country.

Speaking to ANI at Varanasi on Saturday, the railway minister said, "A lot needs to be learnt upon initiating a new project with new technology. Everyone is absorbing the system and learning from it."

Vaishnaw added that once further progress is made in the country's very own bullet train project, newer corridors will be announced. "Once there is further development in the project, new corridors across the country will be taken up."

While work is ongoing on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail or bullet train project, a raft of 'Vande Bharat' trains are already in service in multiple corridors. The fourth 'Vande Bharat' train, which is to connect Una in Himachal Pradesh to Chandigarh and Delhi was flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in October this year. For the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed Rail corridor, the National High-Speed Rail Corporation Ltd (NHSRCL) recently invited bids for the tunnelling work for 21 km (approx) long tunnel including a 7-km undersea tunnel using Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) and New Austrian Tunneling Method (NATM).

According to a statement, the tunnel will be between the underground station at Bandra-Kurla Complex and Shilphata in Maharashtra. The 7-km undersea tunnel at Thane Creek will be the first of its kind in the country. The tunnel will be a single tube tunnel to accommodate a twin track for both up and down the track.