Semi high-speed train corridor between Mumbai - Pune and Nagpur being planned

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Mumbai, India (Metro Rail Today): Maharashtra Rail Infrastructure Development Corporation (MRDC) is planning a semi high speed rail corridor between Mumbai and Pune. This will reduce travel time between both the cities to 90 min. MRDC is the joint venture of the railway ministry and Maharashtra government.

Urban planner Sulakshana Mahajan said:

Justification for the need of a semi high-speed rail corridor between Mumbai-Pune and Mumbai-Nagpur should be taken into consideration. Both Mumbai and Pune are well connected and if a passenger wants to travel to Nagpur in a short amount of time, then they could just travel by an airplane. The pricing of the tickets also needs to be inspected. The projects should be cross-examined to check if they are really necessary.

After conducting the feasibility study, an assessment of land acquisition required for the project will be done, after that project will be sent for approval to the Maharashtra Government and the Railway Ministry. If this project gets approval, the travel time between Mumbai to Pune is likely to reduce almost 90 minutes. It takes 3 hours to reach from Mumbai to Pune by the outstation trains operated by Central railway.

Subodh Jain (Retired member of the Railway Board and Former General Manager of Central Railway) said:

Any high-speed train corridor will require to be operated at 320kmph which will not be feasible between Mumbai and Pune due to the ghat section (mountain pass areas). If the land acquisition is being done for projects, then the railway projects should serve their purpose. There have been instances wherein the landowner has not received the entire compensation, as middlemen are involved. Full compensation should be given.

Subhash Gupta(President, Rail Yatri Parishad) said "When people travel between both the city by road, they get stuck in traffic and by railways it takes time. A semi high-speed train would help people to travel quickly and swiftly between the cities,”

The Mumbai to Nagpur corridor is expected to reduce travel time by 50%. The fastest travel time from Mumbai to Nagpur is 11.30 hours.

"The detailed project report (DPR) for the Mumbai and Nagpur project will be prepared. Finalisation of alignment is being done and social impact assessment and environment impact assessment are ongoing" Said an official of NHSRCL.

The National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL), which is also constructing the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed train corridor (bullet train), has completed its ridership survey for the 753km Mumbai-Nagpur high-speed corridor project.