Bullet train on track, work to start in 2017

The trains could be running between Ahmedabad and Mumbai at 320

Work on the ambitious Rs1 lakh crore Ahmedabad-Mumbai Bullet train project, the country's first high-speed rail corridor, seems to be picking up speed. The groundbreaking ceremony of the project, which involves construction of a 505-km line using Japan's Shinkansen technology, and was first proposed way back in 2004, is expected in the current year itself.

A recent report in Nikkei Asian Review said that the Indian government has brought forward the groundbreaking ceremony to within 2017. The report said that trains could be running between the two cities at a speed of 320 km per hour by 2023.

The Nikkei report said that detailed design study for the high-speed project has formally begun. On completion, the Bullet train will reduce the travel time between Ahmedabad and Mumbai from the current eight hours to just over two hours.

A senior Gujarat government official confirmed that there is a lot of movement related to the Bullet train project of late.

"The project's construction work is expected to start in 2018 and is estimated to be completed in five years," he said.

The timeline for starting work and making the Bullet train operational may not be coincidental, as the next Lok Sabha elections will take place in 2019 and the one after that in 2024.

Chief secretary JN Singh said that the Gujarat government holds 25% equity in the ambitious project, but primary execution of the project is being done by the railways.

The cost of the Bullet train project was originally estimated at close to Rs98,000 crore, of which the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) would fund 81% or nearly Rs80,000 crore. The remaining funds would be contributed by Indian Railways, and the governments of Gujarat and Maharashtra.

Minister of state for railways Rajen Gohain said in the Parliament recently that the cost of the corridor is expected to go up by about Rs10,000 crore due to the decision to construct it as a fully elevated project. The decision is aimed at enhancing safety and reducing land requirement for the project.

The terminal in Ahmedabad is planned to come up at the existing Sabarmati railway station, while in Mumbai, the plan is to build it under the Bandra Kurla Complex.

An engineering marvel

The Bullet train project, which is expected to revolutionise country's transportation infrastructure, will be an engineering marvel. Even as the government is mulling the entire project to be an elevated one, around 7 km stretch of the line between Virar in Mumbai and Thane will pass under the sea. This will be the country's first undersea tunnel.

As per feasibility studies, the line will have 12 stations between Ahmedabad and Mumbai. The trains will make halts at Surat and Vadodara. The travel time between the two cities will come down to two hours and seven minutes, which is almost one-fourth of the current travel time.

The planned fare for the route will be around Rs3,300, one-and-a-half times the price of a AC class I ticket currently. It is expected to carry about 35,800 passengers a day initially.

The trains will run on the same 1,435 mm track gauge as Japan's Shinkansen bullet trains.