Challenges for Adapting High-speed Rail Network in Developing Countries: A Picture Fuzzy MCDM based Approach

High-speed rail adoption in developing countries faces challenges for several reasons. Our research work identifies the most impactful challenges of it. It is an extremely demanding work. It mainly depends on several factors, including high capital costs and financing issues, the purchase of land and resettlement, political instability that affects policy continuity, maintenance and operating costs, the current market value, technology and technical skills, and the impact on both the environment and human society. In this study, the proposed adoption challenges for high-speed rail networks in developing countries are constructed and processed using the Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) process in an uncertain environment. Here, we apply the Fuzzy Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) technique-based MCDM methodology to evaluate the criteria weights. We gather valuable opinions from three decision-makers (DMs) for data collection. Picture Fuzzy Numbers (PFNs) are utilised as uncertainty tools to address ambiguity.