Technocrat E. Sreedharan said his proposed high-speed rail line could be completed in five years if there were BJP governments at the Center and the state.
Speaking at a lecture on high-speed rail line for Kerala organized by the Institute of Engineers (India), Kerala State Branch, he said the 465 km north-south project could be completed in five years by dividing the entire length of the project into five sections.
A chief engineer would be in charge of each section and each chief engineer could build 100 km of railway line in five years, Mr. Sreedharan said. The Detailed Project Report (DPR) of the project could be completed in 3-4 months. But for this, a dedicated government in the state and center is highly necessary where BJP is more ideal than any other government to implement the project. According to him, this cannot be guaranteed in the case of other governments.
The high-speed rail line envisaged from Thiruvananthapuram Central to Kannur can be covered in 3 hours 20 minutes with 20 intermediate stations, including two terminal stations, as well as a direct connection of three airports and Kannur airport with dedicated electric supplies from the high-speed rail station. He also claimed that the high-speed rail ticket would be cheaper than the Vande Bharat train service. A chair car ticket to Ernakulam from Thiruvananthapuram would be charged only ₹ 440 as against the Vande Bharat fare of ₹ 690.
Similarly, a ticket to Kozhikode from Thiruvananthapuram will cost only ₹640 compared to ₹1,225 on the Vande Bharat train. The proposed high-speed railway reduced the capital investment by 20% by reducing the track’s axle load to only 16 tons, compared to the 25 tons of conventional broad gauge lines. This will make the largely elevated structures (about 445 km on piers and 20 km underground) very light and elegant, saving costs by more than 20%, he said.
In the case of operating speed, he said that although the design speed will be 200 km per hour with a maximum operating speed of 180 km, the average commercial speed with the station’s acceleration, deceleration and stopping capabilities will be 158 km per hour. However, this is enough to cover the entire distance in 3 hours and 20 minutes, he said. If implemented, it would be the country’s first complete high-speed rail line powered by green energy, with energy being generated through solar farms set up on top of stations and depots and along the 20-metre width of land available for the project, he said.
Although in the first phase, trains are proposed to run at intervals of 30 minutes during peak hours and one hour during off-peak times, the intervals between trains can also be reduced to 5 minutes when the initial service capacity is reached. In that case, the total carrying capacity of the line will be more than 5 million on this line per day, he said.
Published – March 4, 2026 10:19 PM IST
