DELHI (Metro Rail News): Railway Minister Shri Piyush Goyal recently took a ride in a Japanese bullet train as India looking to get its first bullet train network. The minister took out some time to ride in a bullet train, In his recent visit to Japan for the G20 ministerial meeting. He stated that soon India will also experience the cutting-edge Shinkansen technology in partnership with Japan after taking the high-speed train ride and going through its features.
“The country’s first ever bullet train project, connecting Mumbai and Ahmedabad, will revolutionize train travel in the country,” He further added.
India is adopting Japan’s Shinkansen technology for its first bullet train project since it is known for its safety and punctuality. Although the initial few rakes for bullet train operations will be imported from Japan, eventually the coaches will be manufactured indigenously under PM Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ project. The Japanese Shinkansen E5 bullet trains will be modified to suit Indian needs and climate conditions.
National High-Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) implementing the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project which is a joint venture of Indian government and participating state governments for establishing high-speed rail projects in the country.
It was reported that the upcoming bullet train will take less than a duration of 3 hours to complete a journey between Ahmedabad and Mumbai. En route both directions, the bullet train will cover a total of 12 stations including Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Anand, Sabarmati, Bharuch, Bilimora, Thane, Virar, Vapi, Boisar and Mumbai. The bullet train is likely to start service by 2022-23.
Indian Railways also has plans to expand the bullet train network in the coming years. Earlier this year, it was reported that the entire bullet train project, consisting of 10 new routes would cover a distance of approximately 6,000 km in total. The project is likely to cost around Rs 10 lakh crore.
So far, out of the 10 routes, six have already been identified for the high-speed train operations. The 6 identified routes to run bullet trains include New Delhi – Amritsar, New Delhi – Kolkata, New Delhi – Varanasi, New Delhi – Mumbai, Chennai – Bengaluru and Patna – Kolkata routes.
