Indias High Speed Rail Project

High Speed Rail Project

The current fastest train in India is the Gatimaan Express that runs with a top
speed of 160 km/h, with average speed of above 100 kmph between Delhi and Agra.
For proposed HSR, India would get financial and technological help from Japan.

PEST ANALYSIS

Political :

Economic :

MumbaiAhmedabad HSR corridor

would attract more voters from Gujrat.

Useful for Businessmen and

entrepreneur.

Social :

Technological :

The HSR solution is cleaner.

Introduction of new technological

institutes for railways.

PAGE 1

Detailed Analysis of PEST

Political:
Modi is from Gujarat and thus it might be legitimately argued that he put his
weight on the project. Nitish Kumar of Bihar could not built such because of the
huge traffic, low economic status and terrains in Bihar, so would create Modis
image as Person of Advancing India. Which would help in future elections. BJP
has weak political grip at South and West Bengal. It could be recovered by
advancing HSR in Howrah-Haldia Project and Bangalore-Mysuru Project.
Economy:
The first project to be launched is Mumbai-Ahmedabad corridor. Both of them are
populous and rich cities of India. The businessmen of Vadodara, Surat and thane
would also prefer HSR as compared to AC I class and air flights. AC I class is
costlier than HSR and takes more time and could take less than 100 passengers
also, air flights are very expensive.

Social:
CO2 emissions in 2050 are also lower by 0.2 MT and further emission drops are
possible with decarburization of electricity, according to the UNEP.

Technology:
Building up and advancing institutes like:
Malviya Centre for Railway Technology, IIT (BHU) Varanasi
Centre for Railways Research, IIT Kharagpur
Research Design and Standards Organization (RDSO)

PAGE 2

SWOT ANALYSIS
Strength :

Weakness :

Less cost compared to Air Flights.

Affected by terrains and mountains

Faster way of travel.

Requires technology help from Japan.

Substitute to air polluting

transportation.

Profitable only if speed is below

200kmph

Opportunity :

Threat :

Technological Advancement

High Cost in construction.

Help in formation of Smart Cities.

Acquisition of Forest and

Agricultural land.

Research could help in Traditional

semi-speed Railway also.

Suffer loss in case of long routes.

PAGE 3

Detailed Analysis of SWOT

Strength:
Mumbai-Ahmedabad is among the busiest and is also a part of the broader
Mumbai-Delhi route over which the line might be extended in the future. Any
investor would look for routes with the maximum travelers possible.

Weakness:
Individuals willing to pay for a long distance high speed rail ticket are likely to
prefer a flight, given the journey time savings. If the 500 km journey between
Ahmedabad and Mumbai is about Rs 2,800, then the Delhi-Chennai journey is
likely to cost Rs.11,200. A one way flight for this journey booked ten days in
advance costs in the ballpark of Rs.4,000, suggesting challenges for the DelhiChennai high speed model.
Why speed < 200kmph ?
This will extend the duration of the trip by a marginal amount, but will bring down
construction and operation costs significantly, since these costs increase rapidly
for speeds above 250 kmph .

Opportunity:
Research would not just help the HSR but also the Traditional Railway system
present in India.
Threat:
Questions would be raised about the budget and cost of HSR. But they could be
answered easily by studying following cases.

PAGE 4

Learning from Past

Case I (Delhi Metro):
Just Imagine Delhi without Metro. Between 1 to 15 January 2016 , if there was no
Delhi Metro, govt asked to use cycle instead of cars or even bikes.
Again many protested, questioned and raised doubt against this project
1. How "poor India" will afford to finance "Subway System" of "rich west"?
2. Who will provide spare parts and Technologies?
3. Why should we focus on "Quality of Service"?
Eventually Delhi Metro have answered all such Questions. Now a days we don't see
such questions instead people are demanding more Metro Coaches and more no of
Lines for city.
CM Arvind Kejriwal had proposed expansion of Metro, which helped him getting
Delhi Election.
Case II (Urbanization):
The leaders of India failed to predict the urbanization in future. It lead to Slums
expanding, pollution level rising and traffic system is choking while our
government feels helpless. Now we are seriously thinking about Smart Cities and
Satellite Township but we are too late to address issues.
Suggestions to Government
Long distance should not covered.
Less stoppages.

Conclusion
These are two instances from past where we learnt to think about future. Bullet
train may not be need of an hour but it's the call from future. This is why
government have started to convert the dream of High Speed trains into reality
with the help from Japan.
We cannot let our present cloud our future.

PAGE 5