Railways to upgrade Mumbai, Bengaluru suburban trains

The Railway Ministry may announce its largest investment of Rs 50,000 crore in suburban Railway infrastructure of Mumbai and Bengaluru, according to a report in The Economic Times.
 
The Railways is planning to sell prime land parcels to raise the funds and to not burden the exchequer, the report said.
 
"A self-funding model is being worked out, as part of which private developers and operators will also be engaged," a senior official told the newspaper. 
 
This would be the second largest Greenfield rail development project undertaken by the Narendra Modi-led government, after the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail corridor project, added the report.
 
"Rail infrastructure in both cities is overburdened and creaking. We are planning to build elevated corridors along existing rail lines, given the lack of land, to increase capacity. Stations would be upgraded to airport-like terminals where arrivals and departures would be separate," the official told ET.
 
The Railways has planned a 160-kilometre suburban network for Bangalore. According to the plan, Rs 12,000 crore will be spent on laying of new rail lines and rebuilding stations in the city.
 
"The projects under this plan won't be part of the Railway plan outlay that will be announced in the upcoming Budget. A separate outlay plan will be drawn for these," the official told the paper.
 
Earlier the Union Minister of State for Finance and Shipping Pon Radhakrishnan announced sanction of Rs 4,000 crore for Rail development project in entire Kanniyakumari – Thiruvananthapuram.
 
The Indian Railways is also all set to introduce a couple of high-speed trains. The two trains- Train 18 and Train 20, would reportedly replace Rajdhani and Shatabdi Express.
 
As per reports, these trains would be the fastest in India when introduced and are being developed at the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai.