Chennai, 24 November (H.S.) : Efforts to bring high-speed rail connectivity to South India are advancing, with the Chennai-Hyderabad bullet train project moving forward after the submission of a detailed project report (DPR).

The South Central Railway submitted the DPR for the 778-kilometre high-speed line following a successful feasibility study. Once operational, this project is projected to slash the travel time between the two major economic hubs from the current twelve hours to a mere two hours and twenty minutes.

The initial route proposed for the project had to be revised after the state government requested a realignment to include the city of Tirupati. This revised route, which contains the updated details, has now been submitted to the state government for final approval.

Following this approval, authorities are expected to commence the land acquisition processes. An initial assessment by a consultancy firm indicated that the project will require approximately 22344 hectares of land within Tamil Nadu alone.

Officials confirmed that the construction of the high-speed line will involve significant infrastructure work, including crossing sixty-five roads and twenty-one high-voltage power lines. Plans are currently underway to establish two bullet train stations in the Chennai region: one near Chennai Central and another at Minjur.

Each of these stations is estimated to require at least fifty acres of land. This project is a crucial part of the broader high-speed rail vision for the South, which also includes land surveys for the proposed Chennai-Bengaluru-Mysuru corridor.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Dr. R. B. Chaudhary