हम RailFan - हमेशा पंखों पे

I fully agree with your concerns about improving safety standards all across IR, sir. But it is not clear as to how postponing the High Speed rail project is going to help improve track standards in other places.
The loan being provided by Japan cannot be diverted towards the general improvement of IR as the loan was given solely for the HSR. And postponement will only make these costs escalate further. Either we take the loan and the technology and build a HSR, or we don't get anything.
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And neither IR nor IR's staff will directly involved in the operations and management of the proposed route, which will be handled and operated by the NHSRC. So, it's not like IR is diverting it's (already insufficient) resources towards the HSR project. The sad state of our network is due to the negligence of our authorities. Unless this attitude is changed, postponing the HSR won't make any difference.
And the HSR is not just a futuristic science project. Much like our Space program, there will be lot of spin-offs that provide a lot of benefits. For starters, it opens up a lot of employment opportunities. In addition the technologies developed for the HSR will greatly help us in improving track and rolling stock design and maintenance over our regular network as well.
It is too early to predict if the HSR will be operationally profitable, but it is surely a good thing to go for when we are getting the necessary support from other countries. At the moment, there's nothing to lose.