Maharashtra is planning to launch a Maglev that will cover the nearly 900 km between Mumbai and Nagpur within three-and-half-hours at a speed of roughly 500 kph. The plan follows railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav's remark last year about the possibility of high-speed trains in India. The finance minister of Maharashtra, is claimed to have made a detailed presentation to his cabinet with the view that the high-speed train would be a strong growth driver for Vidharba.

While the Maglev or similar such high-speed train system working as a growth driver by linking portions of the country with major hubs sounds good, it also gives rise to question like whether it is worthy and feasible. There is considerable technology involved in the move up to high-speed trains and therefore huge expenditure.

The Maglev will need dedicated tracks to reach speeds in excess of 300 kph and plenty of uninterrupted high-voltage current. The Maglev, which is propelled by magnetic levitation on guideways involves considerable technology that has nothing in common with the conventional rail technology. Cost has been the biggest factor for Maglev, which is much quicker and offers advantages like superior ability to climb hills-more than three times that of a rail system. This also eliminates or greatly reduces the need for tunnels. Moving on elevated tracks, Maglev is also considered safe and because of the magnetic levitation technology that the train employs it is not possible for two trains to collide.

However, the investments involved in the development of a Maglev system are enormous at least at present. And it is also one of the prime reasons why Maglev has found few takers as of now. China spent US $ 1.2 billion for the 31 km Maglev network in Shanghai, roughly US $ 3.8 million per kilometre. And according to industry sources, the Transrapid consortium, based in Germany, who supplied the technology is said to be hard at work to retain the glamour of Shanghai Maglev project, which witnessed the sinking of the 31 km long Shanghai Maglev train sections. Interestingly, for commuters of the Mumbai suburban network who have to travel like cattle most of the times and on routes like the 50 km long Virar-Churchgate one for one-and-half hours, the high speed train linking Mumbai and Nagpur may sound far fetched.

More so when it involves the Indian Railways, which is spread over 63,140 km, out of which the broad gauge network is 45,099 km, metre gauge network is 14,776 km and narrow gauge network is 3,265 km. Many more sections are being added to the already gigantic rail network of the Indian Railways. Interestingly, the railways, as the principal constituent of the nation's transport system, owns a fleet of 2,16,717 wagons (units), 39,236 coaches and 7,739 locos and runs approximately 14,444 trains daily, including about 8,702 passenger trains. They carry more than a million tonnes of freight traffic and about 14 million passengers covering 6,856 number of stations daily.

In pursuance of the decisions taken earlier, the Government is in the advanced stages of commissioning seven new zones and eight new divisions. The North Western Railway at Jaipur and East Central Railway at Hajipur became functional from October 2002 whereas the remaining five zones, viz., East Coast Railway at Bhubhaneshwar, North Central Railway at Allahabad, South East Central Railway at Bilaspur, South Western Railway at Hubli and West Central Railway at Jabalpur and eight new divisions at Agra, Ahmedabad, Guntur, Nanded, Pune, Ranchi, Rangiya and Raipur are said to have become operational or are in the advanced stages.

The current technology at the disposal of the Indian railways is nothing as revolutionary as a maglev. Not even on the suburban sections that service cities like Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. The plan for maglev or similar such high-speed rail has therefore raised many eyebrows and questions. Some are of the opinion that rather than a quantum leap to maglev the Railways should graduate to high-speed trains that can attain 250 kph. The fastest train in India, the Bhopal-Delhi Shatabdi express, does 150 kph. The logical shift ahead would therefore be to speeds of 250 kph. The 250 kph mark is also in keeping with the remark of a senior railway official.

Interestingly, Rajeev Jyoti, managing director of Bombardier Transportation India, which has supplied technology to Rajdhani and Shatabdi, is also known to have said that in achieving speeds beyond 300 kph the exterior aerodynamic design becomes very critical because there will be a need for specially designed materials and a dedicated corridor. Bombardier, a global manufacturer of innovative transportation solutions, from regional aircraft and business jets to rail transportation equipment, is one of the big suppliers to Indian Railways.

Bombardier Transportation (BT) India is associated with the Indian Railways as a component supplier for propulsion and signaling systems. A state-of-the art factory for manufacturing propulsion equipment has been set up (since 1996) at Vadodara. Amongst the achievements of Bombardier in India include the supply of 6 phase angle controlled locomotives (1987 onwards) to Indian Railways from Sweden, supply of 30 electric locomotives (1993 onwards and pioneering gate-turn-off traction converters and three-phase control) to Indian Railways from Switzerland with value addition from India, including transfer of technology given to Chittaranjan Locomotive Works of the Indian Railways and introduction of the traffic management system project for the Western Railway in Mumbai covering a stretch of 60 km and 28 stations from Churchgate to Virar.

Away from the Churchgate-Virar corridor or the Mumbai suburban rail network, and at 250 kph the high-speed trains may not prove to be an effective alternative to air travel on stretches like Mumbai Nagpur. However, the on-going consolidation in the aero industry should make high speed rail travel a good prospect and especially for those who have to reach out to destinations that are not serviced as effectively by air routes as they could be.