If all goes well, semi-high-speed trains will ply between Tatanagar and Howrah, a distance of around 250km, reducing travel time between the two places to almost half.

The New Delhi-based Railway Board has asked Chakradharpur division of South Eastern Railway (SER) for carrying out a feasibility study for running semi-high-speed trains on the route.

Senior divisional commercial manager of Chakradharpur A.K. Agarwal said on Thursday that the report would be submitted to the Railway Board after taking into consideration all aspects.

'For introducing semi-high-speed trains, infrastructure needs to be augmented. All unmanned level-crossings between the two destinations - Tatanagar and Howrah - will have to be removed. Moreover, the tracks and signalling system have to be strengthened,' Agarwal told The Telegraph.

There are around 60 unmanned level crossings between Tatanagar and Howrah at present. Earlier, the SER had come up with a plan to do away with level crossings in phases to stop mishaps.

The senior railway official said that a semi high-speed train would run at 160km per hour. At present, it takes around four hours for an express train to travel between the two destinations.

'If such a train is introduced, travel time between Tatanagar and Howrah will become almost half,' Agarwal added.

Cost is, of course, the deciding factor.

Railway officials at Garden Reach said that rough estimates peg the budget for the proposed project to be over Rs 500 crore.

Officials at Garden Reach, the Calcutta-based headquarters of SER, said that this was the only route for which a feasibility study had been sought. 'The feasibility report should also give a rough estimate of the funds required for augmenting the infrastructure to make it fit for semi-high speed trains,' said an official at the SER headquarters.

He went on to add that apart from superfast engines, such trains would require dedicated tracks, stretches of which have to be elevated without any level crossing.

President of Singhbhum Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) Suresh Sonthalia, who recently met SER general manager Radhey Shayam in Calcutta, had requested the latter for high-speed trains between Tatanagar and Howrah.

'High-speed trains assume significance between the two destinations as it falls on the Howrah-Mumbai main line. It seems feasible,' he added.