Pamban Sethu - இது தான் நம்முடைய ராமர் சேது - Darnish C

Firstly the current operating speed of Rajdhanis is 130/140 kmph and 75-85 kmph is average speed. Even if the speed is increased to 200kmph through improvement in track and rake, the average speed shall practically be 120-125kmph.
500km Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet train project is costing 1 lac crore Rs. Quadrilateral (i.e. interconnection of 4 metros) shall involve construction of about 10000 kms of track shall cost upward of 20lac crore Rs., which leave aside Indian Railways, even the Indian Economy can not bear.
The Mum-Ahm project has become possible due to extremely...
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lucrative loan extended by Japan (JICA) to the tune of 81% at 0.1% interest rate with15 year payment moratorium, and 50 year payback period! Even this most lucrative route of IRlys will most probably find it difficult to get enough passengers, which according to a study must be above 1 lac per day! Passengers in such bulk is possible only if the fares are affordable to middle class passengers, which presently is not the case. Unless Indian Economy grow at astonishingly fast rate in coming years with benefits substantially percolating to middle class and lower class, high speed quadrilateral is a dream! Passengers in such bulk is possible only if the fares are affordable to middle class passengers, which presently are definitely not affordable.

Mumbai-Chennai Arm Shall be definitely touching Pune. Pune could have been covered with Ahmedbad-Mumbai project,was but left out to contain costs. Nothing had been heard so far about the exact route towards Chennai, which is expected to be more or less parallel to the existing line to avoid land acquisition to the extent possible, thanks to extreme difficulties if land acquisition. Actual route depend a lot on what the survey report and market study says.
My wish is to go elevated over the Mumbai--(980) Bangalore--(+350=1330) Chennai Expressway/ Highway. This route may be 1330 km long about 50 km longer for Chennai (1280 km) and about 230 km shorter for Banglore (1210km) than the existing rail route may be a better option...
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from point of view of better area-coverage, revenue & patronage also. Bangaluru probably have more air traffic than Chennai and higher number of passengers are expected from Bengaluru.
Historically there were 4 Major cities- Kolkata-Mumbai-Chennai-Delhi. At the time of independence probably Madras was more populous than Delhi. (1971 figures as far as I remember are 72-59-25-36 lacs respectively.). From national integration point of view, these 4 cities suited well as 4 Metros of India.
But today the above Metro Club is irrelevant. Today there are 3 metros around and above 1.5 crore i.e. Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata. Next is cluster of 4 in 75lacs-1 crore band i.e. Chennai, Bangaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad. Then Pune, Surat are 50lacs+ and so on. When our leaders speak of metro cities of nation, they say Chennai to represent south. But today Bangalore and Hyderabad had grown up and are catching up very fast and cannot be neglected in matter of representing south India.