India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe laid the foundation for India’s first bullet train at Ahmedabad in Gujarat on Sept. 14.
The Mumbai to Ahmedabad High Speed Rail project is expected to be finished within five years as the Indian government has set a deadline of starting the bullet train on August 15, 2022, which marks India’s 75th year of Independence.
The bullet train project is based on the Shinkansen super speed trains in Japan. This project is mostly funded by a loan from Japan. Of the Rs 1.08 crore, Japan is giving a loan of Rs 88,000 crore at a minimal interest of 0.1 per cent for 50 years. The repayment will begin only after 15 years.
In his address after the ceremony for the 508-km rail, Modi said that no country can grow if they don’t dream big. “To grow one needs to expand his dreams and decide his strength to achieve that,” he said. “It’s new India which has to fly high.”
The bullet train, which has a capacity to accommodate 750 people and will travel at a speed of up to 350km/h, is expected to reduce travel time between the two cities from seven to three hours. It will stop at 12 stations, and the ones that have been proposed are Mumbai, Thane, Virar, Boisar, Vapi, Bilimora, Surat, Bharuch, Vadodara, Anand, Ahmedabad and Sabarmati.
Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said this technology will revolutionize and transform the transport sector.
“Many people criticized the introduction of Rajdhani but now it is the train everyone wants to travel in. This bullet train will be a symbol of brotherhood between people of India and Japan,” he told ANI.
Abe arrived in India here on Sept. 13 on a two-day visit. (With IANS inputs)