High Speed Rail: A necessary step forward

A frequent criticism has been whether the funds being used for HSR would not have been better used in improving safety and expanding traditional rail capacity

A decade after Indian Railways first proposed High Speed Rail (HSR) routes, the foundation stone for India’s first HSR link, between Ahmedabad and Mumbai, will be laid on Thursday. In five or six years, when the trains start running (as per the plan), the travel time between the two cities should fall from the current 6-8 hours to just above 2 hours (for the two-stop journey; one that stops at all 12 stations would take about 3 hours). The 508 kilometre project is expected to cost Rs 1.1 lakh crore, by far the most ambitious project ever undertaken by the