The Indian Railways on Tuesday signed joint declaration of intent with the German Railways for carrying out feasibility study on existing Chennai-Kazipet corridor of Indian Railways for increasing the speed of trains to 200 km per hour. The maximum speed on the corridor is 110 – 120 kmph at present.
The joint declaration was signed between the Ministry of Railways and Germany in the capital in presence of Railway Board chairman Ashwani Lohani. The cost of the feasibility study will be shared 50.50 by the Ministry of Railways of the Government of India and Government of the Federal Republic of Germany.
The final terms and conditions of carrying out of this feasibility study will be completed through signing a separate Agreement.
The current joint declaration of intent is intended to deepen the cooperation, more specifically towards the achievement in the priority area of Semi High Speed Rail up to 200 kmph on the Chennai-Kazipet corridor (643 km). The project consists of three phases to be carried out over a 22 month period.
The total length of the route—Chennai-Gudur-Nellore-Tenali -Vijayawada -Warangal-Kazipet – is 643 km (135 km in Southern Railway and 508 km in South Central Railway) and the entire corridor is electrified.
There is only one direct train from Kazipet to Chennai (Charminar Express) which takes 11 hours 20 minutes with 13 stoppages at an average speed of 57 kmph. Majority of the trains are from Warangal to Chennai (638 km) and the fastest train is Rajdhani Express, which takes 8 hours and 29 minutes with average speed of 75.3 kmph with one stoppage at Vijayawada.