Just read a new update on China opening a new High-Speed Rail Line between Shanghai & Hangzhou. It was amazing to see the country progress so well – building high-speed rail networks to transport people across the country.
But 2 things caught my eye:
1. The Current time taken to cover this distance of 202KM was 90 mins.
This itself is exceptional considering India’s viewpoint, where we travel at a max. of 100KM/Hr speed in most passenger trains. 202KM in 90 mins is around 135KM/Hr. I believe probably only New Delhi-Bhopal will be nearing this speed. China has already cut this time taken by half. Amazing.
2. The construction for the line (202KM) began in Feb’09. It is completed in Oct’10 – 21 Months time. almost 10KMs a month. Again in India prespective – the guage conversion (converting from Meter Gauge to Broad Gauge) through my Home Town (total conversion length about 140KMs) took more than 4years and that too single line. It is still to be opened for passenger traffic…
All talk about India growing and matching China – simply rubbish
Chinese have impressed a lot in various segments. Probably if they were able to speak English, the Indian ‘software (read: back office) boom would have never happened! The way they surged ahead of almost all nations in Sports in short time, keeps surprising me. Their hockey team has defeated India more than a couple of times, and I wonder when a cricket team will come from there!! One more thing that impressed me recently is how fast a whole nation adopted Electric Cycles. In conjusted cities, they have built separate lanes especially for electric bikes in order for people to commute easily. They did all this in a very short span of time. We need to learn from them. A lot.
Destination Infinity