New Delhi, February 26
Trains running at a speed of 350 km per hour will soon be a reality in the country as railway minister Lalu Prasad unveiled the government’s plans in this new arena to take on competition from budget airlines. One need not go to Europe or Japan to experience the pleasure of travelling in such high-speed trains.

“We have decided to conduct pre-feasibility studies for construction of high-speed passenger corridors, equipped with state-of-the-art signalling and train-control system, for running high-speed trains at speeds of 300 to 350 km per hour,” Lalu said. He said one each such high-speed train would run in the northern, western, southern and eastern regions of the country.

“These trains will cover distances up to 600 km in two to three hours,” he said, adding that all alternatives, including private-public partnership, would be considered for implementation of these corridors.

Bombardier Transportation officials had recently met railway ministry officials and presented their expertise in designing such high-speed trains.

Internationally, Bombardier has designed and run 20 such inter-city and high-speed transit systems. With different names, the company has manufactured six high-speed projects worldwide, including those in Spain, France, Germany, Italy, China and the US.