Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train in 10 bullet points

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe on Thursday launched India’s first bullet train project between Ahmedabad and Mumbai. Modi described the ambitious ₹ 1.10 trillion, which will cut travel time between the two cities from seven hours to less than three, as a “big gift from Japan to India”.

■ The bullet train will run at a maximum speed of 350 km per hour, covering the 508-km stretch in under three hours. Japan is giving a loan of ₹ 88,000 crore for the project at a minimal interest of 0.1%.

■ The bullet train will run at an average speed of 320 km per hour

■ It will stop at 12 railway stations on the route but only for 165 seconds each

■ The government wants to start the services of the Ahmedabad-Mumbai High Speed Rail Network on 15 August 2022 to mark India’s 75th year of Independence.

■ A 21-km-long tunnel will be dug between Boisar and BKC in Mumbai, of which seven km will be underwater.

■ The railways will require pnly around 825 hectares of land for the project as 92% of the route will be elevated, six per cent would go through tunnels and only the remaining two per cent would be on the ground.

■ The railways would run about around 35 bullet trains when it starts operation with about 70 trips per day. The number of trains would be increased to 105 trains in 2050.

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■ Initially, the train would 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. The train would have two categories of seats—executive and economy—with the prices comparable with the base AC 2- tier fare of the Rajdhani Express.

■ In the initial days, around 1.6 crore people are expected to travel by the train annually, adding that by 2050, around 1.6 lakh commuters would be travelling by the high-speed train on a daily basis.

■ The train would require a cleaning time of four hours, after running for 20 hours.