Railways Give Shine To Ties As Modi Set To Visit China

BENGALURU: As China prepares to welcome Prime Minister Narendra Modi in May, railway officials from both the countries have been busy trying to give shape to the mega railway agreements inked last year. Officials from both sides are also putting into place plans for inking of $10 billion worth of Chinese investment proposals during the visit.

Modi has been pushing for the development of Indian Railways as a key driver of the country's economic growth and has invited global investments in the sector - from high-speed rail projects, upgradation of stations and railway lines to modernization of a network that ferries over 23 million passengers daily, half of whom are suburban travellers.

China, which has been making remarkable strides in high-speed railways, has been keen to cooperate with India in the sector.

A team from China is conducting a feasibility study for the 1,754-km Delhi-Chennai high-speed corridor. It is being conducted by the China Railway SIYUAN Survey and Design Group Co Ltd following a MoU signed with High Speed Rail Corporation of India Ltd.

"The study is in progress. As part of this, an Indian Railway team visited China and a Chinese delegation was in India," Indian Railways spokesperson Anil Saxena told IANS.

The proposed Delhi-Chennai high-speed train corridor, which would clock 300 km/hour, would be the world's second-longest bullet train line after China's 2,298 km-long Beijing-Guangzhou line, which was launched last year.

The Beijing-Guangzhou line takes eight hours to cover the distance while the Delhi-Chennai line, if it takes off, would take around six hours to cover the distance. Chinese envoy Le Yucheng, during a recent business meet, termed railway cooperation as the "brightest spot" in bilateral relations.

During Xi's visit, both sides inked a MoU for raising the speed of the Chennai-Bangalore-Mysore section to 160 km per hour. China is currently doing a feasibility study on this.
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