NEW DELHI: India’s bullet train dream has moved a step closer. Railway minister Suresh Prabhu on Thursday directed officials to fast-track projects related to high-speed trains at speed of 300kmph and raising speed of existing trains to 160-200kmph.

The high-speed projects — Ahmedabad-Mumbai corridor, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious plan of Diamond Quadrilateral connecting major metros and growth centres, and nine corridors identified for running semi-high-speed trains — were discussed in detail during a three-hour long meeting with CMD Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL) Satish Agnihotri and his team of officials.

“All issues relating to implementation of high speed trains, including funding were discussed in details,” said a source.

He added, “The minister gave clear-cut direction to speed up the projects close to PM’s heart.”

Prabhu discussed the progress of the 543km Mumbai-Ahmedabad corridor along with the plans for the Diamond Quadrilateral network of high speed rail connecting major metros and growth centres announced in Modi government’s maiden budget.

The budget announced that the first dedicated bullet train project will be launched on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad route for which many feasibility studies have been conducted.

Prabhu also directed to accelerate projects for increasing the speed of trains in select sectors to 160-200km per hour by upgrading existing tracks.

Trials on Delhi-Agra corridors were completed and the first semi-high speed train is expected to be flagged off by November end. Other corridors include Delhi-Chandigarh-Amritsar, Delhi-Kanpur and Mumbai-Ahmedabad.

Among other routes identified for running these semi-high speed trains are Nagpur-Bilaspur, Mysore-Bengaluru-Chennai, Mumbai-Goa, Chennai-Hyderabad and Nagpur-Secuderabad.

As per estimates, railways needs more than Rs 9 lakh crore to complete the Golden Quadrilateral Network and Rs 60,000 crore for introducing one bullet train alone.