NEW DELHI – India has sought China’s assistance to speed upBangalore-Chennai railway corridor besides redevelopment of Agra and Jhansirailway stations, a senior Indian official said today.
The proposal was made at the Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED) held herebetween the two countries.
“We offered them speeding up of Bangalore-Chennai railway corridor,” NITIAayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar said today.
The SED was held between delegations headed by Kumar and He Lifeng, thechairman of China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).
The proposal was made for increasing the speed of the corridor to 150 kmph.
India previously made a proposal to China for the redevelopment of Agra andJhansi railway station. It has been reemphasised at yesterday’s talks,officials said.
The Chinese side will respond after considering the proposals, they said.
Kumar said it was pointed out to the Chinese side that the railway stationdevelopment plan is a big one involving about 600 of them. They can bid forany of them, he said.
However, there was no discussion in the just concluded SED about thecollaboration to build high speed trains by China in India, he said.
China has been expressing interest to take up high speed train corridors inIndia and began conducting a feasibility study for New Delhi and Chennaihigh speed train corridor.
The first high-speed train corridor in India between Mumbai and Ahmedabadhas been bagged by Japan.
China has the world’s longest high-speed rail network, with 22,000 kmswithin the country linking various top cities.