Bullet train, Metro, bus and train: All at Sarai Kale Khan

According to National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL), which is planning and executing the bullet train project, the Delhi to Varanasi corridor will be one of the first high-speed rail links that will come up in the country, after the Mumbai-Ahmedabad corridor.

Sarai Kale Khan is going to be the biggest transport hub of India a few years down the line with the Central government planning to integrate the area with its ambitious bullet train project.

“For Delhi, we are planning one station which will be in close proximity to Sarai Kale Khan and the Nizamuddin railway station. This station is being planned as the starting point for the Delhi-Varanasi corridor,” said Sushma Gaur, spokesperson of NHSRCL. (Representative Image) (AP PHOTO.)

According to National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL), which is planning and executing the bullet train project, the Delhi to Varanasi corridor will be one of the first high-speed rail links that will come up in the country, after the Mumbai-Ahmedabad corridor.

“For Delhi, we are planning one station which will be in close proximity to Sarai Kale Khan and the Nizamuddin railway station. This station is being planned as the starting point for the Delhi-Varanasi corridor,” said Sushma Gaur, spokesperson of NHSRCL.

The proposed Delhi Varanasi High-Speed Rail (DVHSR) corridor will have a length of about 800km and will connect the national capital with major cities in Uttar Pradesh such as Mathura, Agra, Etawah, Lucknow, Raebareli, Prayagraj, Bhadohi, Varanasi and Ayodhya. It will also be connected with the upcoming international airport in Jewar in neighbouring Gautam Budh Nagar district. The project will, however, take over five years to be ready as the NHSRCL is still only preparing the detailed project report.

In Delhi, the idea is to connect all modes of transport with the high-speed rail (HSR), Gaur said. The corporation is planning the station in Sarai Kale Khan with this idea in mind so that people can reach the corridor via road (the Outer Ring Road), via the Delhi Metro (the Pink Line’s Hazrat Nizamuddin station), via interstate buses (Sarai Kale Khan ISBT), and via regional rail connectivity (the upcoming Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS)). It will also be connected to the Nizamuddin railway station, officials said.

Already, all three RRTS corridors under Phse 1 -- the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut; Delhi-Gurugram-SNB-Alwar and Delhi-Panipat -- are slated to converge at Sarai Kale Khan when ready.

Integration with Airport Express Line

Apart from the Delhi-Varanasi corridor, the NHSRCL is planning two more corridors from the national capital -- the Delhi-Ahmedabad line and the Delhi-Amritsar line.

On January 13, the corporation wrote to the Delhi government seeking assistance in the DPR preparation of the Delhi-Ahmedabad corridor.

“The NHSRCL has been entrusted with the DPR work for HSR corridor of Delhi-Jaipur-Udaipur-Gandhi Nagar- Ahmedabad. The total project length is 886km, of which approximately 4.5km are in Delhi. It is estimated to traverse through the two districts of New Delhi and south-west Delhi,” read the letter addressed to chief secretary Vijay Dev.

Senior officials said currently, one common station is being planned for both the Delhi-Ahmedabad and Delhi-Amritsar corridors.

“We intend to build this station in close proximity of Dwarka’s Sector 21 Metro station and the Bijwasan railway station. While preparing the DPR, integration of this station with the operational Airport Express Metro Line is also being worked out as that will give connectivity to HSR users to not just to the Delhi airport but also to Central Delhi,” the spokesperson said.

It will also provide connectivity to the upcoming International Convention Centre at Dwarka’s Sector 25 and Gurugram.