Post Date: Post Date – 01:02 AM, Monday – Oct 31st 22
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Hyderabad: High-speed trains connecting Hyderabad with other metros in the country have long been on Telangana’s list of needs. Despite discussions of a high-speed train or bullet train connecting Hyderabad and Bengaluru or Mumbai, the plan remains on paper.
Meanwhile, other states, especially those under the polls, are using high-speed Vande Bharat Express trains, as Telangana has asked the center to handle.
The Vande Bharat Express, a semi-high-speed train with a top speed of 180 km/h, will make its southern debut on the Chennai-Bangalore-Mysore route on November 10. This is despite repeated calls by the Telangana government to do so for the government to approve the bullet train to Hyderabad. It has made repeated pleas to Indian Railways to sanction a bullet train, and even opposition leaders including Nalgunda MP Utam Kumar Reddy have urged the centre to open its doors in Hyderabad-Vijay Sanctions a bullet train on the Yavada route. However, the BJP government has not considered any appeals.
Under the National Railway Plan (NRP), there has been a proposal to develop a corridor between Hyderabad and Bangalore. In addition to this, National High Speed Rail Limited has reportedly launched a tender for the preparation of a detailed project report for the Mumbai-Pune-Hyderabad bullet train project.
However, there has been little progress on this front. Union Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddy recently reiterated the same old story that Union Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnav had promised to start brand new Vande Bharat trains from Hyderabad to Tirupati or from Hyderabad to Vijayawada via Vijayawada Shakapatnam.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will drop off the Vande Bharat Express on the Chennai-Bangalore-Maisuru route on November 10. This will be the fifth Vande Bharat Express to drop off, with a total length of 483 kilometers. The problem here is that the 3rd and 4th Vande Bharat Express was launched recently in the polled states of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. Similarly, Karnataka will hold elections next year.
Interestingly, while Vande Bharat trains are said to be equipped with a train collision avoidance system called KAVACH, those launched so far are in the news for all the wrong reasons. First, a technical glitch in the New Delhi-Varanasi semi-high-speed train caused delays. Although railway officials spent five hours trying to fix the barrier, it was unsuccessful and passengers were eventually placed on the Shatabdi Express.
Then, there were several instances of Vande Bharat Express trains hitting cattle and sustaining damage.
