High speed rail line between Chennai and Mysuru: Land may be stumbling block

CHENNAI: The railway ministry may have already begun looking for a consultant to build a high speed rail corridor between Chennai and Mysuru via Bengaluru, but senior officials say it would be an expensive project, with land acquisition alone expected to take up a major chunk of the cost.
They say 50 metres-60 metres would be required throughout the 425-km stretch, and estimate that around 5,000 acres would have to be acquired to lay two lines along the route. Acquiring such a huge extent of land may become a stumbling block in addition to the cost of building the line and fencing it on either side so that trains can travel at speeds upto 300kmph without hindrance, said a railways official. "They may have to build elevated lines while passing through towns and cities to avoid disturbing land. This alone will cost around 150crore per km. Availability or willingness to acquire land has been a major stumbling block to laying high speed railway lines. Fresh land will be needed because the line cannot be along side existing lines that include inclines and curves," he said.
The railways has been pushing for a high speed rail network in the south since 2005. "We have had many discussions with the Germans, Chinese and the Japanese for looking at feasibility. Routes were fixed and surveys were also done on Bengaluru route too. But, it did not take off," he said.
The first question reperesentatives of the foreign firms would ask was whether suge huge tracts of land could be acquired. But the railways could not offer land and state governments were not forthcoming. "The discussion did not go further because the government was hesitant to provide land. More land would be required than needed for regular lines because fences will have to come up to prevent vehicles, people and cattle from crossing them," said an official.
The proposed Mumbai-Ahmedabad high speed rail line too has been stuck in a land acquisition row and has been delayed for more than a year.
Sources say the estimated project cost, ridership and optimal route can be revealed after surveys are conducted before getting approvals from the railway board, state governments and the Union government. The high-speed corridor is likely to be built along existing/ proposed expressways. "The objective is to meet growing passenger demand and optimise high-speed rail connectivity between major cities/commercial and economic activity centres," says the bid document.