BENGALURU: Nine stations have been identified for the high-speed rail corridor planned between Chennai and Mysuru via Bengaluru.
The stations are likely to come up at Chennai, Poonamallee and Arakkonam in Tamil Nadu, Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh, Bangarpet, Bengaluru, Channapatna, Mandya and Mysuru in Karnataka. However, this is still a tentative list, officials said. A depot to maintain trains is being planned at Poonamallee.
The 435km Mysuru-Bengaluru-Chennai corridor is expected to reduce travel time between the three cities to one and a half hours. However, with the high-speed rail unlikely to reach the city limits due to land-acquisition issues, a multi-model transit hub linking the railways, Metro and buses are expected to be planned on the outskirts.
These decisions will be taken after a preparatory survey for the alignment is completed in a few months. The National High-Speed Rail Corporation has floated a tender to identify an agency to do a preparatory survey for the line.
The trains, with a capacity of 750 passengers, will run at a maximum speed of 350kmph and operational speed of 320kmph. Like the Metro, they are likely to have standard-gauge tracks.
A National Rail Plan (NRP) policy which was prepared by RITES–AECOM JV has proposed 13 corridors in total (existing and extensions) with a combined total length of 7,897km. It has also fixed 2,051 as the deadline for Chennai – Bengaluru – Mysuru (462km) high-speed rail but it is likely to be implemented much before as the paperwork like a survey for land, alignment, preparation of detailed project report is progressing fast.
But rail activists are unhappy with the proposals to have nine stoppages and standard-gauge tracks. “A train like Bengaluru-Mysuru-Chennai Shatabdi stops only at KSR Bengaluru City, Bengaluru Cantonment, Katpadi and MGR Chennai Central. Then why are there so many stoppages for a high-speed train? It should halt only at Mysuru, Bengaluru and Chennai,” said activist Sanjeev Dyamannavar. Further, the Centre is under pressure to prefer standard gauge over broad-gauge tracks. If they use broad gauge, they could have integrated the existing rail tracks, which would have reduced cost, he added.