A rail journey between Nagpur and Hyderabad may take a mere three hours down from the nine that most trains take now if a plan is put into action. The railways have drawn a blueprint for a semi-high speed corridor linking the two commercial hubs, a senior official said.

“The ministry has initiated a joint feasibility and implementation study with Russian Railways to chalk out details after which it will be sent to the Railway Board for approval,” the senior ministry official said.

The railways planned to cash in on the fact that at present there were no direct flights between the two cities. A flight with a stopover could take four hours or more.

Currently, the 584-km stretch is covered by the Railways at an average speed of 60km/hr in a minimum of nine hours.

The railways is planning to run the trains at a speed of 160-200km/hr by strengthening the existing tracks and fencing off the route to complete the journey in less than three hours.

Semi-high speed trains can gather a maximum speed of 200 km/hr, while faster ones in the category of high-speed or bullet trains can run at 250-350 km/hr.

The Delhi-Chandigarh corridor, one of the busiest routes in north India, is slated to be the first semi-high speed project being taken up by the Railways with French help. It will enable trains to run at a maximum speed of 200km/hr.