Title - T'puram: Work on high speed rail corridor to begin in 2014

Kochi: If everything goes well, the work of the ambitious Rs 1.8 lakh-crore high speed rail corridor project from Thiruvananthapuram to Kasargod will begin by January 2014. It will take eight years to complete the project. The first phase of the project from Thiruvananthapuram to Ernakulam, with an estimated cost of Rs 45,000 crore, will be completed in five years. Another three years are required to complete the project from Ernakulam to Mangalore, T Balakrishnan, chairman and managing director, Kerala High Speed Rail Corporation Ltd (KHSRCL), has said. He was talking to reporters at a function organised on the INKEL (Infrastructure Kerala Limited) campus in Angamaly on Thursday. The survey for the project is in progress. Tunnels have been planned in cities for the project, he said. We are hopeful of completing the project without much protest so that Kerala will be the first state in the country to implement high-speed rail. Japanese Shinkansen technology is being used for the project and it will be accident-free, he added. On completion, the high-speed rail will enable people to travel from Thiruvananthapuram to Kasargod in 142 minutes, covering a distance of 526 km. Thrissur will be a common hub station for the high speed rail project and the proposed rail corridor project from Chennai to Thiruvananthapuram, Balakrishnan said. There will be eight stations between Thiruvananthapuram and Kasargod - Kollam, Chengannur, Kottayam, Kochi, Thrissur, Thirur, Kozhikode and Kannur for the high speed train. An estimated time of 43 minutes is required for the bullet train to reach Kochi from Thiruvananthapuram.