New Delhi: The foundation for the much-awaited and the much talked about Bullet Train, which will add a new chapter in the history of the Indian Railways, will be laid jointly by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at Ahmedabad on September 14.

Talking to the journalists of news agency UNI at its headquarter here today Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha today confirmed it.

He said the project had been given a final shape and it was just waiting for the Japanese PM to come.

The Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed railway project will come up with financial and technical assistance from Government of Japan. This train is based on Japanese Shinkansen high speed technology.

He said, “Both Prime Minister Modi and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will lay the foundation for this project”.

Meanwhile. the Japanese Prime Minister is likely to come to India on September 12 though there is no official announcement by the Ministry of External Affairs but the Japanese media has put the date of visit from September 12-14.

According to highly placed sources, the two leaders will lay the foundation stone of the Bullet train yard and training centre at Sabarmati and a training centre in Vadodara.

According to sources, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal reviewed the project immediately after taking charge of the Ministry.
To implement the project, a training centre will be set up in Vadodara, where the Japanese Railways will train the staff of the Indian High Speed Rail Corporation.

Sources said that this line will be underground in Mumbai and a 21-km-long tunnel will be constructed for which the seven km portion will be in the sea.
The remaining portion will be elevated so that minimum of land acquisition will be required. Due to rail overbridge and Metro line in Ahmedabad and Sabarmati, the height of the bridge of the Bullet train line is likely to be 20 metre.

According to sources, apart from Ahmedabad and Vadodara, the entire line of 450 km length will be constructed by the Indian companies.

The 508 kms project will come up at a cost of Rs 97,636 crore including price escalation, interest during construction (IDC) and import duties.

The joint feasibility study by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and India was completed in July 2015.

It may be recalled that at the meeting between Mr Modi and Mr Abe in 2015, both had agreed that India will use the Shinkansen system for its high-speed railway for the Mumbai–Ahmadabad corridor.

The Japanese Government is providing financial assistance in the form of loan upto 81 percent of the project cost at a very nominal interest rate of 0.1 percent per annum to be repaid in 50 years with a 15 year moratorium.

This corridor will have 12 stations between Mumbai and Sabarmati — Mumbai, Thane, Virar, Boisar, Vapi, Bilimora, Surat, Bharuch, Vadodara, Anand, Ahmedabad and Sabarmati.

The total journey time for a fast train will be of 2.07 hrs and for trains stopping at each station will be 2.58 hrs.

The maximum speed of the train will be 350 kilometers per hour and the actual speed will be 320 kilometers per hour.

Sources said that initially 10 to 12 racks of Bullet trains would be imported from Japan but later they will be extended under the make-in-India programme.

Initially the train will have 10 coaches in which 750 people can travel and later, 16 coach racks will operate.

The fare will be equal to 1.5 times of the AC first class fare of the Shatabdi Express train between Mumbai-Ahmedabad.

Although, it has not been decided yet whether the Bullet train would be run in the economy category or both economy and premium categories.

DeshGujarat