Indian Railways Signs MOU with Spain on High Speed Rail Service

NEW DELHI  (NNN-Bernama) -- Indian Railways is exploring possibilities of introducing bullet train service and improving safety features in train operations in the country with Spain.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) on technical cooperation in the rail sector was signed on Friday by Railway Minister C P Joshi and visiting Spain Minister of Public Works and Transport Ana Pastor Julian.

Spain has a modern railway network linking all major towns and cities, Press Trust of India (PTI) reported.

Under the agreement, both countries will promote cooperation and information exchange in the areas of high speed railway, upgrading speed of passenger trains, improving safety of train operations, maintenance of technologies for track, bridges, tunnels and power supply systems, among others.

Indian Railways is in the process of setting up a high-speed rail authority to run trains at 300 km/hour speed on seven selected routes.

"We have plans to develop high-speed train service in the country and we are currently in the process of carrying out pre-feasibility study on seven identified corridors," an official said.

Routes that have been identified for proposed bullet train service are Pune-Mumbai-Ahmedabad (650 km), Delhi-Chandigarh-Amritsar (450km), Delhi-Lucknow-Patna (991 km), Hyderabad-Chennai (644km), Chennai-Bangalore-Thiruvanthapuram (850 km) and Delhi-Jaipur-Jodhpur (591 km). --NNN- BERNAMA