Diamond Quadrilateral project: Modi’s High Speed Railway Dream

Addressing a conference by NAREDCO, Amitabh Kant, MD of DMIC once said, “Land is the scarcest resource. Thus, planning must be done efficiently with major focus on transit-oriented development as we need to built cities for people not for cars.”

Somewhat similar views were echoed by BJP’s Manifesto on 7th April 2014 — “Indian Railways is the lifeline of the country. It will be modernised, strengthened and upgraded to serve passengers as well as the country’s economy… We will launch (the) Diamond Quadrilateral project of High Speed Train network(s) (bullet train).”

With the vision to upgrade Indian Railways, one of the prominent project in this direction is the Diamond Quadrilateral, which boasts of High Speed Train network (bullet train). This ambitious project plans to connect four major cities of India located at four edges of the country.

Envisaged on the similar lines of Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s Golden Quadrilateral project (launched in late 1990s), if implemented properly, the project can do wonders in enhancing the transportation system of our country.

So, does India really needs an ambitious project like diamond Quadrilateral? Well, the answer is yes! When we compare the speed of trains in India to China, we can clearly see the difference. For instance, the distance between Delhi and Nagpur is 1032 km, and the distance between Beijing and Shanghai is about 1224 km. While in an ideal situation it takes about 13 hrs and 35 min to cover the former distance, one can cover the distance of 1224km in China in less than 5 hrs, which is about three times less.

Current status

It is expected that the Railway Ministry will start the feasibility studies on High Speed Rail in the next two-three months. It has already conducted ridership survey along Mumbai-Ahmedabad and Delhi-Amritsar route and found that there is sufficient demand for such a project.

Is there a problem? Land acquisition has been the major roadblock in India for major projects. Thus, acquiring land may be a little difficult in this case as well. Other hurdles would be environmental challenges and operational issues as such high speed trains must have seamless corridor without any possible obstructions.

Cost and Financing

Further, HSR is a costly affair. As per the pre-feasibility study, total amount required for the project is about Rs 70,000-80,000 crore and would cost about 40 crore per km. So, where will the money come from? Well, as of now there is no clarity on the subject. However, assistance from Japan and China are doing the rounds. Also PPP model is being explored to raise another source of funding. China and Japan experienced in high speed railway have expressed interests in executing the project.

Possible Corridors

The first corridor that is expected to get bullet train on the tracks is between Ahmedabad and Mumbai. This most probably will be followed by the Delhi-Chandigarh-Amritsar stretch. Few other corridors on papers are Hyderabad-Dornakal-Vijayawada-Chennai, Chennai-Bangalore-Coimbatore-Ernakulam, Howrah-Haldia and Delhi-Agra-Lucknow-Varanasi- Patna.