Ahead of UP polls 2017, Delhi-Varanasi bullet train in the offing

Ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls scheduled for next year, the government has decided to introduce a second bullet train that will run between Varanasi and Delhi, according to a report in The Times of India. 

The distance of 782 km between the national capital and PM Modi's constituency will be completed in just two hours and 40 minutes. The stretch will reportedly pass through Aligarh, Agra, Kanpur, Lucknow and Sultanpur. 

The Delhi-Varanasi route will be part of the Delhi-Kolkata bullet corridor. The Delhi-Lucknow distance will be covered in one hour and 45 minutes, while Delhi-Kolkata will be covered in four hours, 46 minutes. 

The bullet train project between Mumbai-Ahmedabad is already underway and is expected to be ready by 2023, Suresh Prabhu had said last month. Estimated to cost about Rs 97,636 crore, 81 per cent of the funding for the project will come by way of a loan from Japan. The bullet train is expected to cover 508 km between Mumbai and Ahmedabad in about two hours, running at a maximum speed of 350 kmph and operating speed of 320 kmph.

According to the TOI report, a Spanish firm will conduct the feasibility study of the high-speed rail corridor and will likely submit its report in November 2016. The Delhi-Varanasi stretch will reportedly cost Rs 43,000 crore while the Delhi-Kolkata stretch will cost Rs 84,000 crore.