With the steep fare hike, the Railways have dropped a bomb on local train travellers, the revised railway budget may bring some happiness to the commuters who have been refused high-speed travel for decades in spite of promises in the past.

“Railway minister Sadanand Gowda is keen on the proposals aimed at fulfilling Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of constructing a "diamond quadrilateral" of high-speed trains and ensuring world-class facilities for passengers,” said an official.

The options under consideration are - creating dedicated corridors to run trains with speed of more than 300 kmph and using existing tracks to run trains at the speed of 130-150 kmph.

The high-speed corridor for Mumbai to Pune and Ahmedabad to Mumbai are on the top priority list of railways for bullet trains. These tasks are soon expected to go on floor since the government has mentioned that it will let on 100% FDI in high-speed train travel.

Existing tracks cannot sustain the desired increase in speed. Therefore, the other proposition is aimed at using train-sets or electric multiple units identical to those used in Delhi Metro which will ensure faster and comfortable travel.

Due to inter-departmental rivalry in railway ministry, this plan was on hold but immediately got a push after a presentation was made before Gowda.

The new technology will boost the average speed from 85 kmph to 105 kmph because of which the travel time will reduce considerably by three hours 35 minutes on a 1,440 km route – New Delhi-Howrah segment.

If the permissible limit is raised to 160 kmph instead of the current 130 kmph the journey time can be reduced further.

The trains in the inter-city segment are packed by locomotives. The trains used in Rajdhani and Shatabdi Express can achieve a speed of 150 kmph, but the average speed falls down to 85-90 kmph since there are many speed restrictions. These trains will end up saving 30% energy and also enhance passenger carrying capacity by 25-30%. Imported train sets cost upto Rs 8-9 crore per car which means a train with 21 cars would cost Rs 150-175 crore.

Currently, a Rajdhani with 17 passenger coaches, two power cars and two pantry cars costs Rs 75 crore. An official asserted that the cumulative money(Rs. 90-100 croce) spent on trains can be revived within five years.