Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi will kick off the ₹1.10-lakh crore bullet train project connecting Ahmedabad and Mumbai with a foundation stone- laying ceremony here on Thursday.

The two-day visit of Abe beginning Wednesday afternoon, will also be marked by the Annual Bilateral Summit between Japan and India. The countries are expected to sign MoUs offering investments to the tune of around ₹5 lakh crore by Japan’s top 15 companies in sectors such as like automobiles, engineering, and infrastructure.

On Thursday morning, Abe and Modi will participate in a ceremony to lay the foundation stone of the high-speed rail at a stadium near Sabarmati Railway Station. A delegation-level talk will be held subsequently at Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar, followed by an exchange of agreements and a joint address to the media. The two PMs will also visit an exhibition at the same venue. An Indo-Japanese business plenary will also be held at Mahatma Mandir.

The most important take-away of Abe’s visit is, of course, the high-speed rail networkor the bullet train. Out of the projected cost of ₹1.10 lakh crore, Japan will offer a loan of ₹88,000 crore at an interest rate of 0.1 per cent. Repayment of the 50-year loan will begin 15 years after the commencement of operation.

The train’s journey, at a minimum operating speed of 320 km/hour, will begin at Sabarmati Railway Station — with 10 cars and 750 passengers — and will culminate at the Bandra-Kurla Complex in , Mumbai, within three hours, after covering 12 stations on the 508-km route. Later, two more cars will be attached to it to accommodate a total of around 1,200 passengers. The fare is likely to be less than ₹3,000 per passenger.

The government has formed a new entity, National High Speed Rail Corporation Ltd to implement the ambitious project, which is expected to be completed by 2022.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW