India to Get Its First Japanese-Modeled Bullet Train by 2022

China had initially pitched for the project but the contract was awarded to Japan. Japan has agreed to provide more than 65 per cent of the total cost of over $16 billion to India in the form of easy loans.

New Delhi (Sputnik) — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe will lay the foundation stone for India's first high-speed train between Ahmedabad-Mumbai during the latter's visit to India starting Wednesday.

The bullet train is one of the dreams projects of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The high-speed train will considerably reduce travel time between Ahmedabad and Mumbai which are major commercials hubs. The high-speed train is designed to have ten cars with 750 people capacity and is slated to carry around 36000 passengers every day in a total of 70 rides both sides. The project deadline of 2023 has been preponed to August 2022 to coincide with the 75th year of India's Independence.

India's Railway Minister Piyush Goyal told that the country's rail network would be "transformed and revolutionized with the initiative." Goyal sounded optimistic about the project while claiming that "similar projects in Japan had not seen a single accident. "I am sure the track record will remain the same in India", he added.

The speed of the train is estimated to be around 320 km per hour with 12 stops between the two metropolitan cities. The project will involve elevating a 92 km stretch running atop bridges, 6 per cent will pass through tunnels, and the remaining 2 per cent will run on the ground.
Sanjeev Sinha, alumni of the Indian Institute of Technology and a former employee of India's Tata group of companies in Tokyo has been appointed as adviser for the high-speed rail project by Japan Railways.

A consortium of six companies under the aegis of Japan International Consultants or Japan Railways Group, along with the National High-Speed Rail Corporation, a three-way alliance between the Gujarat and Maharashtra state governments and the urban development ministry of India will be involved in the project.

Meanwhile, the Japanese Prime Minister is visiting India to attend the 12th India-Japan Annual Summit. "Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister of Japan will undertake an official visit to India on September 13-14, during which the two leaders will hold the 12th India-Japan Annual Summit in Ahmadabad/Gandhinagar, Gujarat," a statement from the Ministry of External Affairs said on Monday.

This will be the fourth Annual Summit between Prime Minister Modi and Prime Minister Abe. The two leaders will review the recent progress in the multifaceted cooperation between India and Japan under the framework of their ‘Special Strategic and Global Partnership' and will set its future direction, Ministry added.

Japan is expected to sign as many as 10 memorandums of understandings with India relating to cooperation in different sectors. Japan has also expressed interest in increasing its investment in the state of Gujarat from present $1 billion to $3 billion.