France may offer cheaper trains to India

New Delhi: In what may come as an alternative to the Japanese high-speed rail projects in India, France may suggest “semi-high speed” rail projects for India that are “five times cheaper” than very high-speed rail projects and this issue may come up for discussions in the near future between the two countries.

French diplomatic sources said that the advantage of semi-high speed rail projects (about 200 km per hour) is that new tracks do not have to be laid, which makes it very cost effective. It may be recalled that Japan is financially and technologically assisting India on a high-speed rail project from Mumbai to Ahmedabad. Sources said France has got both types of technologies and that it is for India to decide whether it would like to opt for semi-high speed rail projects as an alternative.

In September this year, PM Narendra Modi and his visiting Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe had launched the ambitious Rs 1.10 lakh crore project for India’s first bullet train between Ahmedabad and Mumbai that will run at a maximum speed of 350 kmph covering the 508-km stretch in under three hours.

Following a string of railway accidents, there had been criticism from the Opposition that too much of money would be spent on the high-speed bullet train project. Opposition parties had demanded then that more money should be spent instead on improving basic railway infrastructure.

An Indo-Japanese joint statement issued in Sept. during Japanese PM Abe’s visit to India had stated, “The two PMs welcomed the commencement of the project on the ground at the Sabarmati Station for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail (MAHSR), which will be a vital symbol of a new era marked by the 75th anniversary of India’s Independence. They dire-cted their teams to multiply their efforts for achieving the target.