New Delhi, Jan 22 (Agencies): The centre has given its nod to the proposed high-speed rail corridor in Kerala, in a boost to infrastructure development in the state.

The Indian Railways is also reported to have expressed interest in taking up the Thiruvananthapuram-Mangalore high-speed train link on a priority basis.

The Railways had proposed six high-speed train corridors for conducting pre-feasibility studies. These included Delhi-Chandigarh-Amritsar, Pune-Mumbai-Ahmedabad, Hyderabad-Dornakal-Vijaywada-Chennai, Chennai-Banalore-Coimbatore-Ernakulam-Trivandrum, Howrah-Haldia and Delhi-Agra-Lucknow-Varanasi.

It is likely that the Chennai-Banalore-Coimbatore-Ernakulam-Trivandrum corridor may be replaced by a more direct route to accommodate high-speed trains

Vinay Mittal, chairman of Railway Board, expressed interest in taking up the project during a high-level meeting called by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's office in New Delhi yesterday.

The ambitious high-speed rail corridor project will link the entire stretch from the state capital in the south to Kasargode in the north and further to Mangalore in neighbouring Karnataka.

The decision came at a high-level meeting convened at the Prime Minister's Office in Delhi last evening.

The state government has been asked to draw up a detailed project report (DPR) of the scheme, official sources said.

Principal secretary to the prime minister Pulok Chatterjee, Kerala chief secretary P Prabhakaran and the managing director of Infrastructure Kerala Ltd T Balakrishnan were also involved in the discussions.

The 580-km track within the state could reduce travel time from Thiruvananthapuram to Kasargode to two or three hours.

The project is expected to be a public-private partnership, with technical and financial collaboration of the Indian Railways, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) and central and state governments. The financing pattern of the project is yet to be finalised.