Bullet Trains in India is the next dream that the country is living with. The Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Corridor would run the first ever Bullet Train in India. The under construction railway line is expected to be completed by 2022.
Features of the Corridor
The rail corridor will go through Maharashtra, Dadar& Haveli and Gujarat sharing 508 Km of line. Most of the lines will be elevated, close to 92% and 6% will pass through the tunnels. On the other hand, only 2% of the train line will be grounded. There will be 12 stations on the first ever bullet train route in India and these are Mumbai, Thane, Virar, Boisar, Vapi, Bilimora, Surat, Bharuch, Vadodara, Anand, Ahmedabad, Sabarmati. Interestingly, all stations but Mumbai will be elevated.
Bullet Train Specification
The Bullet Train is designed to run at the speed of 350 kmph and the journey time between Mumbai to Ahmedabad should be 2 Hours 7 Minutes. The train will be built to sustain the speed and higher technology will be used for the operation and control. The train design and the functions could be compared with the best bullet trains of the world. The fare is not clear as of now, but according to the Railway Ministry, it should be in accordance with the Rajdhani Express top fare.
Cost of the Project
The project is being developed with the association of Japanese International Cooperation Agency. They have agreed to fund 81% of the total project that is close to 88,087 Crores. The repayment has been agreed for 15 years at 0.1% of interest. The total cost of the project is expected to be around 1.1 lakh crores. The total cost includes the interest during the construction duration and the import duties. The remaining cost of the project would be borne by the Government of Maharashtra and Gujarat.
Future Corridors
Many High Speed Railway Corridors have either been planned, approved or proposed. That includes all the parts of India. Delhi-Agra, Kolkata-Delhi, Hyderabad-Chennai-Howrah (via Vizag), Chennai-Thiruvantapuram and much more are currently under construction. Few of the tracks are Semi-High Speed that is 150-250 Kmph and few are high speed till 350 kpmh. As of now, the Government has agreed with many international companies such as Systra from France, Mott MacDonald from the UK, INECO, PROINTEC, Ayesa, Italferr, JETRO and much more for the development of the Bullet Train corridors in India.