Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train: PM Narendra Modi, Japan's Shinzo Abe today launched work on the project.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe today launched work on India's first bullet train, which will run between Ahmedabad in Gujarat and Mumbai. The train, which is expected to begin operating in 2022, will run at a maximum speed of 350 km per hour and will cover the 508-km stretch in under three hours. The ambitious project will cost around Rs 1.10 lakh crore. Japan is giving a loan of Rs 88,000 crore for the project at a minimal interest of 0.1 per cent.
Here are 10 facts about the country's first bullet train
The bullet train will have 12 stops of 165 seconds each. It will take two hours and 58 minutes from Ahmedabad to Mumbai if it stops at all 12. If it stops at four stations -- Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat and Mumbai - it will cover the distance in two hours and seven minutes.
The Railways will run 35 bullet trains when it starts operations, with about 70 trips per day. It plans to increase the number to 105 trains by 2050.
The Railways will only require around 825 hectares of land for the project as 92 per cent of the route will be elevated, six per cent will go through tunnels and only the remaining two per cent will be on ground.
A 21-km-long tunnel will built on the train between Boisar and Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai, of which seven km will be under the sea.
Initially, the train will have 10 coaches with a total seating capacity of 750 passengers. Later, it is proposed to have 16 coaches with a seating capacity of 1,250 passengers.
Railway Minister Piyush Goyal has said bullet train fares will be "affordable for all". The train will have two categories of seats - executive and economy -- with prices comparable with the base AC 2-tier fare of the Rajdhani Express.
The 12 stations that have been proposed are Mumbai, Thane, Virar, Boisar, Vapi, Bilimora, Surat, Bharuch, Vadodara, Anand, Ahmedabad and Sabarmati. The train will require a cleaning time of four hours, after running for 20 hours.
Around 1.6 crore people are expected to travel by the train every year when operations begin. The government says by 2050, around 1.6 lakh commuters will travel by the high-speed train on a day.
The two prime ministers also laid the foundation stone for an institute that will come up at Vadodara, where around 4,000 people will be trained for the bullet train project.
Japan's loan of almost Rs. 88,000 crores at a minimal interest rate of 0.1%, has to be repaid over 50 years. Repayment will begin only after 15 years. The first tranche of the loan, Rs 6,000 crore, will be released immediately, while the remaining tranches will come after the completion of land acquisition.
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