BULLET TRAIN - DREAM OF NEW INDIA

PM Narendra Modi and his Japanese Counterpart during the launch of Bullet Train 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart laid the foundation stone for India’s first bullet train project in Ahmedabad on Thursday. “This is the new India and the flight of its dreams is endless,” Modi said at the ceremony. “The bullet train project will bring speed and employment. It is human-friendly and eco-friendly.”

The prime ministers of the two countries laid the foundation stone for an institute that will come up at Vadodara where around 4,000 people will be trained for the bullet train project. The total cost of the project is ₹1.1 lakh crore. It is a joint venture between the Indian Railways and Japanese firm Shinkansen Technology. Japan will fund 81 per cent of the project, nearly ₹88,000 crores, in soft loans at an interest rate of 0.1%. The loan will have to be repaid over 50 years.

The Bullet train will run between Ahmedabad and Mumbai in a 508 km stretch of which 92% of the route will be elevated, 6% will go through the tunnel and only the remaining two per cent will be on the ground, so the Railways won’t require much land. The tunnel through which the train will go will be India’s longest tunnel of 21 km out of which 7 km will be under the sea.

The new train will be carrying 750 passengers and will have a top speed of 320-350 km per hour, with an average speed of 250 km per hour. It is expected to reduce travel time between the two cities to around 2 hours from the existing 7-8 hours. On the Ahmedabad-Mumbai route, 12 stations have been proposed: Mumbai, Thane, Virar, Boisar, Vapi, Bilimora, Surat, Bharuch, Vadodara, Anand, Ahmedabad and Sabarmati. The fare could be between ₹3000 - ₹5000.

It is expected that the Bullet train would roll out by 2023, but Railways Minister Piyush Goyal said PM Modi wants the train to start on 15 August 2022 - when India completes 75 years of Independence. The government said it will create around 15 lakh new jobs in India.