Bullet train project in India: What you need to know about the high-speed rail system

Bullet train project in India: PM Narendra Modi and Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe today inaugurated the Bullet train project in Ahmedabad. (Source: ANI)

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe laid the foundation stone for India’s first high-speed rail project in Ahmedabad on Thursday, both leaders stressed the importance of Indo-Japan relationship with a renewed focus on special, strategic and global partnership. In his speech, the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed hope that when he’s back in India in a few years, he would have the good fortune of enjoying the beautiful scenery of India through the windows of the Bullet train. “PM Modi and I will work towards realizing ‘Jai Japan- Jai India’. If we work together nothing is impossible. I wish that when I come here next I come with PM Modi in a Shinkansen,” said Abe.

Echoing Abe’s views, PM Modi reiterated that transport system is of prime importance for a nation’s development while adding that next generation growth will happen where there are high-speed corridors. Also Read: The bullet train route, mostly overhead, a stretch undersea

What PM Modi and Shinzo Abe spoke about during their speech on the Bullet train:

1. The Rs 1.10 lakh crore train project between Ahmedabad and Mumbai is expected to be completed by 2022.

2. The train would cover the distance of over 500 km in around two hours.

3. The project is a joint venture between Indian Railways and Japan’s Shinkansen Technology.

4. Formally called the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Project, the Bullet train will run at an elevation of 18 metres for most of its route — 471 km out of 508 km — primarily to ensure it travels over the existing railway route. The remaining 37 km include the 7 km undersea stretch between Thane and Vasai, besides another 15 km underground in Mumbai.

5. 320 kph is the speed envisaged for the Bullet train, but officials say it could go up to 350 kph.

6. 508 km is the total route from Sabarmati in Gujarat to Bandra in Mumbai.

7. While talking about the Bullet train, PM Modi thanked Japan for its help: “Japan is such a friend that it gave a loan of Rs 88,000 crore at 0.1 per cent interest.”

8. PM Modi also took a dig at the Opposition. “When earlier I talked about bullet train, they (opposition) used to say it was big talk, and now when it has come they are saying what is the need for it,” said Modi.

9. PM Modi reiterated that the next generation growth will happen at places where there are high-speed corridors.

10. “Dear friend PM Modi is a far-sighted leader, he made a decision of making New India and chose Japan as a partner, we completely support it,” said Japan PM Shinzo Abe.

11. PM Modi and I will work towards realising ‘Jai Japan- Jai India’, said Shinzo Abe.

12. The transport system is of prime importance for a nation’s development, said PM Modi.

13. “We might be getting technology from Japan, but the maximum resources for the project will be generated in India,” said PM Modi.

14. An integrated transport system is new India’s dream. Be it railways, highways, waterways, or airways, we have in all spheres stressed on infrastructure and are carrying forward the necessary work, said PM Modi.

15. PM Modi also thanked Shinzo Abe for taking a personal interest in the Bullet train project. “Thank my friend Shinzo Abe, he took personal interest and assured that there should be no glitches in the project,” he said.

16. If technology is used to empower the poor we can win the fight against poverty, said PM Modi.

17. On 75 years of India’s independence around the year 2022-23, wish that both PM Shinzo Abe and I inaugurate the Bullet train, said PM Modi.

18. “Our railway network is so huge that the number of people travelling in trains every week in India is equal to Japan’s total population,” said PM Modi.