Delhi-Guwahati bullet train may cross Chicken's Neck underground or on stilts, says Himanta Sarma
The Assam Chief Minister said the extension of the approved northern high-speed corridor to Guwahati will need a dedicated line through the narrow Siliguri Corridor and far higher investment than usual.
A planned bullet train link between Delhi and Guwahati will have to pass through the Siliguri Corridor, the narrow strip of land known as the Chicken's Neck, either through a tunnel or on an elevated track, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Tuesday.
Speaking to reporters in Guwahati, Sarma said the line had been approved but that surveys still had to be done before the alignment and technology could be settled. He called the decision bold and said he would discuss the technical details with Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on his next visit to Delhi.
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The northern corridor
Vaishnaw announced in Varanasi on Saturday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had approved a northern high-speed rail corridor. According to the plan described by officials, it would run from Delhi through Agra, Kanpur, Lucknow, Ayodhya, Varanasi, Prayagraj and Patna to Siliguri, and then on to Guwahati.
Sarma said the Centre had first indicated that extending the line to Guwahati might not be feasible, but agreed after he met the Prime Minister and the Railway Minister. Without the extension, he said, the train would have ended at Siliguri.
Why the Chicken's Neck is hard
The Siliguri Corridor in north Bengal is about 22 km wide and narrows to around 16 km in places. It is the only land link between the Northeast and the rest of India, and already carries national highways and railway lines, leaving little room for new construction.
Sarma said a bullet train cannot share existing tracks and needs its own line, which means building through or over a crowded strip. He said the investment could be two to three times higher than on a normal stretch because of the terrain and lack of land. No cost estimate, length or completion date has been made public.
Why it matters for India
The Chicken's Neck is seen as strategically sensitive because of its closeness to the borders with Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and China, and any disruption there can cut off eight states. A high-speed line would add a new transport link through the corridor and shorten travel between the Northeast and the national capital, though Sarma acknowledged that building it would take time.
The announcement comes days after the Railway Minister said the design of India's first indigenous bullet train was ready, with a prototype likely early next year.
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