High-speed train via Bengaluru to reach Chennai in just 2 hours and 25 minutes

Mysore/Mysuru: India’s National High-Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) has invited tenders (bids) for the first dedicated preparatory survey work to develop the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the upcoming 450-km Mysuru-Bengaluru-Chennai High Speed Rail project in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

This is the second high-speed rail line planned in South India and is expected to cut down the travel time between Chennai and Mysuru to less than 2.5 hours.

The tender notice was issued by NHSRCL last evening and it is the final of six new high-speed rail corridors planned by the Government of India last year, for which basic preliminary work has commenced to start construction on the project. 

Others already in the preparatory stage include the 865-km Delhi – Varanasi line, 886-km Delhi – Ahmedabad line, 741-km Mumbai – Nagpur line, 465-km Delhi – Amritsar line and  767- km Mumbai – Pune – Hyderabad line.

The scope of the survey includes identification of overhead, overground, underground utilities and identification of power sourcing options for substations along the High-Speed Rail Corridor. The survey work involves identification of crossing bridges over rivers and canals, Railways and roads, Expressways, National and State Highways and major district roads and construction of maintenance depots. 

The survey has to be completed in 98 days and companies have to submit the final bids by Jan. 12, 2021. The bids will be opened on Jan. 13 at 3.30 pm and the final tender for the survey will be awarded to the approved firm. 

This is the first dedicated tender notice for this line. Earlier this month, NHSRCL invited bids for two other survey and study related works — encompassing 2,365 km of lines — which includes work for this line. The nine stations proposed on the Mysuru-Chennai line are planned to be built at Mysuru, Mandya, Chennapatna, Bengaluru, Bangarpet, Chittor, Arakkonam, Poonamallee and Chennai. 

In the coming days, NHSRCL will invite bids for preparation of detailed social impact, resettlement action plan, preparation of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and preparation of final alignment design. 

Once the project is implemented, the high-speed train from Mysuru to Chennai via Bengaluru will take just two hours and 25 minutes as against the current seven hours in Shatabdi Express which is the fastest train on this route. On a normal train journey, it takes over 10 hours to travel between the two cities. Shatabdi travels at a maximum speed of 110 kilometres per hour.

The high-speed train will run at a maximum speed of 320 kilometres per hour and it can cover the 145-km distance from Mysuru to Bengaluru in just 45 minutes. The project will benefit thousands of people who travel on a daily basis between Mysuru-Bengaluru-Chennai. Traffic on the stretch is ever-increasing, forcing many people to fly.