This refers to Ravi Boothalingam’s article “Looking beyond 1962” (December 28). His prescription for increased trade relations with China needs to be pursued earnestly. However, views can differ on the two areas he mentions — high speed trains and modernisation of our railway stations with Chinese foreign direct investment. Do we need bullet trains at this stage of our railway development and strained finances? China may have introduced a bullet train from Beijing to Guangzhou — covering 2,298 km in just eight hours. It has plans to invest £400 billion on 10,000-mile network of four high speed lines from north to south and east to west. The longest express train of India, the Vivek Express from Dibrugarh to Kanyakumari, takes 84 hours to traverse 4,285 km. We have to spend more than 24 hours to travel by train from one metro to another, and in some routes, it is more than 36 hours. Travel time in these routes have not been reduced in the last 60 years. For our needs and conditions of finance and development, it would be prudent if our railways embark on gradually increasing the speed of trains and reducing the travel time, and not venture into an extravagant expenditure on bullet trains. After 11 Five-Year Plans, seeking foreign assistance for, of all things, to modernise our railway stations is prima facie infra dig for us.
S Subramanyan Navi Mumbai
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