HIGH SPEED PASSENGER RAIL CORRIDOR STUDY

To ease the pressure on civic services in Metropolitan cities by enabling daily and frequent commuter movement to and from satellite towns for business, employment, leisure and other purposes, Government of Gujarat (GoG) along with Ministry of Railways (MoR) has initiated a pre-feasibility studies for a High Speed Passenger Rail Corridor between Pune – Mumbai – Ahmedabad considering its potential to act as a catalyst in fast development of towns/ industrial hubs along the route in Gujarat as well as in Maharashtra. The important cities/ industrial towns which may be served by the corridor are Pune, Lonawala, Khandala, Kalyan, Mumbai, Valsad, Surat, Bharuch, Anand, Nadiad, Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar. The commercial speed of the High Speed Passenger Train service will be 300 Kmph and Design speed of 350 Kmph. The pre-feasibility study focus on the technical feasibility, ridership potential, suitable route and technology options, estimated cost, role of concerned State Governments, Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), revenue recovery mechanisms, alternative financial plans including property development, structuring and packaging of the project for Private Sector Participation (PSP) and financial assistance required under Viability Gap Funding (VGF), if any.

The pre-feasibility study has been completed. Decision at the Ministry of Railways, Government of India level is under consideration.