Mum-Ahmedabad rail corridor to be fully elevated, says Rajen Gohain

In a major design change to the — commonly referred to as the bullet train — Minister of State for Railways Rajen Gohain, in Parliament on Wednesday, said the ministry has decided to construct the route as a fully elevated corridor to enhance safety and reduce the land requirement for the project.

Gohain said that according to a preliminary assessment by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), a fully elevated corridor entails an additional cost of about Rs 10,000 crore. However, current cost estimates of the project stand at Rs 97,636 crore.

"A general consultant was appointed by JICA in December 2016 to prepare design documents, bidding documents and technical standards and specifications for the project, considering the corridor as fully elevated," Gohain said.

According to the report submitted by JICA in July 2015, the 508-kilometre route was supposed to be built in such a way that 63.3 per cent of tracks would be on an embankment slightly above the ground, around 28.3 per cent on stilts, 5.8 per cent would have been tunnels and 2.2 per cent on bridges. The new move, according to senior railway officials, would mean that a part of the tracks that were to be built on embankments will not be built on stilts.