OREANDA-NEWS. December 8, 2011. The Ministry of Railways has selected six corridors for conducting prefeasibility studies to introduce high speed passenger trains in the country. Bids for all cases have been invited and many domestic as well as foreign firms have participated in them. These corridors are (i) Delhi-Chandigarh-Amritsar (450 km approx.), (ii) Pune-Mumbai-Ahmedabad (650 km approx.), (iii) Hyderabad-Dornakal-Vijaywada-Chennai(664 km approx.), (iv) Chennai-Bangalore-Coimbatore-Ernakulam-Thiruvananthapuram (850 km approx.), (v) Howrah-Haldia (135 km approx.) and (vi) Delhi-Agra-Lucknow-Varanasi-Patna (991 km approx.).

Out of six corridors, consultants for four have been selected and studies are at various stages of progress. The Ministry of Railways has also decided to set up a National High Speed Rail Authority for planning, standard setting, implementing & monitoring of High Speed Rail Projects.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Railways Shri K. H. Muniyappa in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.