Business Standard

Rising costs by inflation force UK govt to delay major rail project

The UK has announced a two-year delay to parts of a new high-speed rail link between London and northern England, citing escalating costs caused by inflation

UK

Photo: Bloomberg

IANS London

The UK has announced a two-year delay to parts of a new high-speed rail link between London and northern England, citing escalating costs caused by inflation.

"We have seen significant inflationary pressure and increased project costs, and so we will rephase construction by two years" of the High Speed Two (HS2) project between the city of Birmingham and the town of Crewe, Transport Secretary Mark Harper said in a statement to Parliament, Xinhua news agency reported.

Billed as the largest infrastructure project in Europe, the HS2 is planned to link Manchester, Birmingham and London, and modernise the country's railway network, but has been "heavily" criticised over its soaring cost, which could exceed 100 billion pounds ($119 billion) according to some estimations.

 

--IANS

int/sha

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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First Published: Mar 10 2023 | 8:48 AM IST

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