Title - Seminar discuses pros and cons of high-speed rail services

While the Chief Minister has stoked a debate on the bullet train, the outcome of a technical seminar on high-speed rail services (HSRS) organised by Sri Jayachamarajendra College of Engineering (SJCE) will be worth studying.The SJCE had organised the seminar in association with the Transportation Research Group (TRG) of India, which saw a wide-range of issues related to the HSRS.B.G. Sangameshwar, principal, SJCE, told The Hindu that the seminar held in May this year had covered the entire gamut of issues that are related to HSRS, including advantages and disadvantages, lessons that can be learnt from other countries for developing HSRS in India, the engineering skills and technological transfers that the project may require, among others.The participants were professionals and technical experts from Germany, Spain, USA, and India, said Prof. Sangameshwar.

Advantages

The advantages included safety, comfort and reduction in commuting time, addressing issues of regional imbalance, reducing pressure on growing urban areas (Chief Minister mentioned decongestion of Bangalore as one of the reasons for the bullet train), and so on.

Disadvantages

But the disadvantages, as expressed by the expert group, included high capital cost, operation and maintenance cost, and need to change alignment.

But the most important dissuading factor was the observation that planning and implementation could take a long time, while change of government could upset the project, said Prof. Sangameshwar.

The crisis plaguing power sector was also an issue, as experts wondered if the high-speed train service could be viable in India under the present conditions.

Prof. Sangameshwar pointed out that micro-issues, including land acquisition process, environmental cleaning, pricing, choice of speed and gauge, minimum length of the route for the viability of the project, and lessons from Spain which incorporated the best of technologies from other countries were discussed.

Also, it was the considered opinion that India could not emulate China and the project could get bogged down with land acquisition and compensation issues.

The papers presented and the detailed analysis offers insight on the subject and could assist the planners, said Prof. Sangameshwar.

The outcome of SJEC’s seminar will be worth studying