Mumbai to Ahmedabad in 2 hours! PM Modi, Shinzo Abe may flag off bullet train project in September

Bullet train

The first decisive steps towards realisation of India's decades-old dream of having bullet train network may soon see light of the day. The government is preparing to flag off the high-speed trains project in September with Japanese government.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe may lay the foundation stone after taking part in the bhoomi poojan function of the Rs 97,636 crore Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail corridor project, according to a report in Business Standard.

The bullet trains can cover the 508-km-long Mumbai-Ahmedabad stretch in just two hours, drastically reducing the time from the current seven hours. The train will originate from Bandra-Kurla Complex. The route will consist of 12 stations. At present, the government is mulling strategies to ply both high-speed trains (speeds of 300 kmph or more) and semi-high speed trains (speeds of 160-200 kmph).

In February 2016, a special purpose vehicle — National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited — to implement the elevated Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail corridor project was formed. The Japanese government offered further assistance by agreeing to provide a loan of up to 81 percent of the total project cost.

Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu has set a target to commission the project by 2023-24. The project has been sanctioned with 50 percent equity participation by the railway ministry and 25 percent each by the governments of Maharashtra and Gujarat.

Apart from the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed corridor, the other projects envisioned by the government include Delhi-Mumbai, Mumbai-Chennai, Delhi-Nagpur, Mumbai-Nagpur and Mumbai-Chennai corridors. Trains plying on these corridors will also be crossing 300 kmph.