Pune: The promising high-speed railway corridor from the city to Mumbai and Hyderabad would involve the Herculean task of land acquisition, laying state-of-the-art tracks, strong signalling network and modern safety measures to avoid accidents.“This new project will be hugely beneficial to the commuters. It will require land acquisition and a detailed project report (DPR). Also, this is not a part of the bullet train project,” a senior railway official said. Swapnil Nila, the chief public relations officer of the Central Railway, confirmed these.Another railway official said, “The construction of the high-speed corridor will take time because the issue of land acquisition has to be addressed first. It is a tedious process. Quite a few rail projects across the country have been delayed because of it. At this moment, it is difficult to say when the land acquisition process will begin. The DPR would be prepared before it,” another official said.Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday announced the high-speed railway corridor project in her Budget speech as a part of a larger network connecting Mumbai to Pune, Pune to Hyderabad, Hyderabad to Chennai, Chennai to Bengaluru, Delhi to Varanasi and Varanasi to Siliguri.Commuters and experts stressed the Pune-Mumbai high-speed railway corridor project was needed because of the frequent traffic snarls on the expressway. “This will be a major relief for commuters. We expect the high-speed rail corridor to cut down the journey time by at least an hour or a little more. The expressway is not at all comfortable for travelling any more, especially because of frequent massive traffic jams and accidents,” Shailesh Gadak, a regular traveller, said.Anand Saptarshi, a member of the Zonal Railway Users’ Consultative Committee, agreed. “The project should be implemented on priority with a time-bound approach,” he said.The distance between Mumbai and Pune by train is 191km. Trains, including Mumbai-Solapur Vande Bharat Express, ply at a maximum speed of 110kmph on the stretch.The travel time between Pune and Mumbai on inter-city trains varies between three hours and 15 minutes to four hours. Deccan Queen starts from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus at 5.10pm and reaches Pune at 8.25pm. Deccan Express takes a little over four hours and Pragati Express three hours and 25 minutes to complete the journey.There are a total of 86 movements of mail/express trains, originating, terminating and passing through the two cities. “Some trains start from Mumbai, pass through Pune and go to Hyderabad too. There are 22 movements of trains between Pune and Hyderabad,” an official of the Pune railway division said.Several projects linking the two cities have been delayed over the years. The expansion of Pune-Mumbai Expressway, laying third and fourth lines from Pune to Lonavla, the expressway missing link project and a new parallel expressway have either been delayed or yet to start.Last Sept an announcement was made about spending Rs2,550 crore to build the third and the fourth railway lines between Pune and Lonavla. Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad municipal corporations, other local bodies, and the state govt were to share the amount. The total cost of the project is estimated at Rs5,100 crore. Half of it would be borne by the Centre.“The project is being handled by the Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC). We have no idea about it,” a Central Railway official said.
