The 'bhoomi poojan' of the prestigious Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train project shows India's giant leap.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese couterpart Shinzo Abe inaugurated the high-profile project near the Sabarmati river on Thursday.
Seen as highlight of Indo-Japan bilateral ties, the project is almost free for New Delhi.
“Ek prakar se muft mein ,” PM Modi said after the bullet train launch ceremony.
As the two Asian powers join hands for a the mega infra project, here are five facts you must know about India's first bullet train:
1: The 508-km Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Project would be made in an estimated cost of Rs 1,10,000 crore with a loan of Rs 88,000 crore from Japan. The interest on this loan would be as low as 0.1%. The loan would be given back within 50 years. The grace period of another 15 years has also been given by Japan for the project.
2: The bullet train would cover a stretch of 508 km between Ahmedabad and Mumbai. The stretch would have 468 km of elevated track with 27 km inside a tunnel and the rest 13 km on the ground. Besides, the train would also pass from the country's biggest tunnel of 21 km. It would also run 7 Km under the sea.
3: At present 12 stations have been proposed, they are Mumbai, Thane, Virar, Boisar, Vapi, Bilimora, Surat, Bharuch, Vadodara, Anand, Ahmedabad and Sabarmati.
4: According to railway ministry officials, the operating speed of the bullet train will be 320 kilometers per hour and maximum speed will be 350 kilometers per hour. By making its stop at all the above mentioned 12 stations, the train would take 2 hours and 58 minutes.
5: The train will make 70 Ahmedabad-Mumbai rides. Reportedly, a total of 24 high-speed trains will be imported from Japan and then rest of the rakes will be manufactured in India. Also, the officials stated that the reason behind giving this project to Japan is that the nations has been running the trains since many years without a single accident that ever happened on its bulet trains.
