The government has envisaged a ‘Diamond Quadrilateral rail project’, to modernise and revamp the railways.

The project intends to connect major metropolitan cities with high speed trains to reduce the travelling time between cities.

At present, there are seven routes, including Mumbai-Ahmedabad; Howrah-Haldia; New Delhi-Patna; and Hyderabad-Chennai, where feasibility studies are being undertaken.

Besides the plan for bullet trains at 350 kmph, the Indian Railways is going ahead with the semi-high speed train project between Delhi and Agra on the existing track. As per the plan, a semi-high speed train is expected to run at 160 - 200 kmph. As work is going on at full steam, the semi-high speed train will be launched in Delhi-Agra sector by December 2014.

Further, Railways will also take up the semi-high speed train project on Delhi-Kanpur and Delhi-Chandigarh route, phase-wise. While bullet trains require dedicated elevated track, semi-high speed trains will run on the existing track.