Union Minister Piyush Goyal. (File Photo)
India’s ambitious bullet train project between Mumbai and Ahmedabad is likely to be completed a year ahead of its stipulated deadline (December 2023), said newly-appointed Railways Minister Piyush Goyal. “Deadline still remains December 2023, but we will try to complete Bullet train by Aug 15, 2022,” Goyal said while addressing a press conference. The Union Minister also pointed out that the construction of the high-speed train corridor will provide 4,000 directs jobs for running the system and 20,000 indirect jobs.
Goyal also stated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi played a crucial role in helping the country to get cheap loan from Japan for the construction of bullet train corridor. “PM’s goodwill and image instrumental in India getting such cheap loan from Japan for bullet train,” Goyal said, adding that the speed with which Modi-led government has implemented all projects has bolstered his confidence that bullet train will be completed on time.
Stating that India kept running railways on technologies that were discarded by other developed countries years ago, the Union Minister believes that introduction of bullet train will revolutionise the country’s outdated railway system. “Make in India will eventually bring down cost of bullet train manufacturing. We could export to the world,” he added.
READ: Bullet trains are set to change train travel in India: Here is how
Goyal further said bullet train would have the same impact on India’s transport technology as Maruti had on automobile sector 30 years ago. He highlighted that 500-km of distance would be covered within two hours by bullet train, which would also have an effect on Mumbai-Ahmedabad flight sector.
The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi and the Prime Minister of Japan, Mr. Shinzo Abe boarding the Shinkansen bullet train to Kobe from at Tokyo Station, in Japan on November 12, 2016.
Commenting on speculations that bullet train would be expensive, Goyal said the government will certainly keep the rates in affordable zone. “We will certainly keep it affordable. Competition will find its way,” he said.
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India and Japan will sign 10 MoUs when Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will visit Gujarat along with PM Modi on Wednesday. They will lay the foundation stone for the Rs 1.1 lakh-crore Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project at Sabarmati railway station in Ahmedabad.