'The railways have decided to develop five high-speed passenger train corridors to enable passengers to cover these busy routes in the shortest possible time,' said a ministry official here Friday.

'One high-speed passenger corridor each will be in the northern, western, southern and eastern region,' Railway minister Lalu Prasad had said recently.

'One corridor will run between Delhi-Chandigarh-Amritsar, the second will run between Pune-Mumbai-Ahmedabad and the third corridor will be on the Hyderabad-Dornakal-Vijyawada-Chennai route,' said the minister.The other two corridors will be on 'Howrah-Haldia route and Chennai-Bangalore-Coimbatore-Ernakulum route,' he said.

The project is still at its preliminary stage, the minister admitted, adding: 'The railways have decided only to conduct pre-feasibility studies for construction of high speed passenger train corridors'.

The railway ministry has already initiated 'the process for inviting global tenders for engaging a consultant for conducting pre-feasibility studies', Lalu Prasad said, and added: 'A decision shall be taken only after these studies are completed and evaluated'.

The idea of high-speed corridors for passenger trains has come from the states, the minister said, explaining: 'State governments of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Delhi have expressed their interest in high-speed trains and have agreed 'in principle' to participate in any pre-feasibility studies.'