Railways begins work on Delhi Varanasi High Speed Rail

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The Indian Railways has begun work on the Delhi-Varanasi High-Speed Rail (DVHSR), which will be the second such rail corridor in the country after the 508-km Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail (MAHSR) corridor. The Railways undertook an aerial light detection and ranging survey (LiDAR) survey of the 800-km DVHSR corridor to connect Prime Minister Narendra Modi's parliamentary constituency with the national capital through the bullet train.</p>
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The National High-Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) is undertaking the LiDAR survey from Uttar Pradesh's Greater Noida, using a helicopter fitted with state-of-the-art equipment and imagery sensors to capture data along the proposed route. NHSRCL spokesperson Sushma Gaur said LiDAR technology helps gather ground details and data in three to four months as against normal time period of 10-12 months through the traditional method.</p>
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She said the ground survey is a crucial activity for any linear infrastructure project as it provides accurate details of the geographical areas around the proposed railroad alignment. "This technique uses a combination of laser and GPS data, flight parameters and actual photographs to give an accurate survey data," she said. Gaur said that the LiDAR survey will capture data of 300 metres (150 metres on either side) of the proposed railroad alignment area.</p>
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Thereafter, three-dimensional (3D) topographical map of 50-metre corridor on either side of the proposed alignment on a scale of 1:2500 will be made available to design vertical and horizontal alignments, structures, location of stations and depots, land requirement for corridor, and identification of project-affected plots/structures, and right of way etc.</p>
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"To provide clear pictures of structures, trees and other minute ground details, 60 megapixel cameras have been used in the LiDAR survey," she said, adding that the NHSRCL has been entrusted to prepare the Detailed Project Reports for seven high-speed rail corridors. Gaur said that the first draft of the detailed project report for the DVHSR corridor was submitted to the Railway Ministry on October 29, 2020.</p>
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The corridor will connect Delhi with Mathura, Agra, Etawah, Lucknow, Raebareli, Prayagraj, Bhadohi, Varanasi, and Ayodhya. The HSR route also proposes to connect the upcoming international airport at Jewar in Gautam Buddha Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh.</p>
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On September 14, 2017, Modi along with then Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe had laid the foundation stone of the MAHSR corridor, popularly known as the 'bullet train' project. On February 15, 2019, Modi had flagged off an indigenous 'Train 18', which was rechristened 'Vande Bharat Express' between Delhi and Varanasi, capable of running at 180 kmph.</p>
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(With inputs from IANS)</p>