The Indian Railways plans to add four more high-speed rail corridors to the National Rail Plan in addition to the presently planned eight corridors.
The proposed eight corridors include Mumbai – Surat – Vadodara – Ahmedabad, Delhi – Noida – Agra – Kanpur – Lucknow – Varanasi, Delhi – Jaipur – Udaipur – Ahmedabad, Mumbai – Nasik – Nagpur, Mumbai – Pune – Hyderabad, Chennai – Bangalore – Mysore, Delhi – Chandigarh – Ludhiana – Jalandhar – Amritsar, Varanasi – Patna – Howrah.
A railway source told The New Indian Express that the 618 km long Hyderabad – Bangalore, 855 km long Nagpur – Varanasi, 850 km long Patna – Guwahati and 190 km long Amritsar – Pathankot – Jammu high-speed rail corridors are likely to be proposed under the National Rail Plan in 2022.
Currently, only the Mumbai – Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail (MAHSR) project is under construction.
MAHSR project is a 508 km long first High-Speed Rail (HSR) network under execution in India. Out of 508 km, 352 km lies in Gujarat (348 km), and Dadra and Nagar Haveli (four km) and balance 156 km lies in Maharashtra.
The construction work is in progress in Gujarat and Dadra & Nagar Haveli, where 98 per cent and 100 per cent land has been acquired, respectively. In Maharashtra, land acquisition done so far is 40 per cent.
Also, Detailed Project reports (DPRs) are being prepared on the approved Delhi – Varanasi, Delhi – Ahmedabad, Mumbai – Nagpur, Delhi – Amritsar, Mumbai – Hyderabad and Chennai – Mysore corridors.