Stage set for 'Groundbreaking Ceremony' of Bullet Train by Modi, Abe

Brushing aside critics who say huge funds could have been used to address issues concerning maintenance of the vast railway network, the Railway Minister Piyush Goyal has said that the the 508 km high-speed train to run at a pace of 350 km/hour will revolutionise and transform the railways and integrate it to the updated global technology.

Here is Fact Sheet and Key Dateline about Bullet Train,

Sept 14, 2017: PM Narendra Modi and Shinzo Abe lay foundation stone for country's first high speed (bullet) train between Ahmedabad and Mumbai.

Sept 11, 2017: Railway Minister Piyush Goyal announces that government is keen to advance the target for commissioning the project by 2022 - India's 75th year of Independence as against initial target of 2023.

December 2015: The first agreement on the project was signed between India and Japan during Japanese PM Shinzo Abe's visit to India. At later stage, JICA came forward to finance it.

The project is based on Shinkansen Technology of Japan and would be completed at a cost of Rs 1,08,00000 crore.

The first line to see ground-breaking trains from Shinkansen technology was from Tokyo to Osaka, the Tokaido Shinkansen, opened in October 1964. Initially, the trains ran at up to 200km/h but this increased significantly.

The second generation Shinkansen was introduced in 1972 between Shin-Osaka and Okayama, three years later extended to Hakata.

During his visit to Japan, Modi visited a bullet-train plant of Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. a maker of Shinkansen cars.

In fact, Prime Minister and his host Shinzo Abe traveled by bullet train from Tokyo to Kobe to visit the plant.

Studies have shown that around 1.6 crore people are expected to travel by the bullet train annually. Once started, passengers will have two speed options in terms of ticket fares. High-speed travelers need 2.58 hours to reach the destination, while Rapid High-speed will help will cover the 508 km distance in 2.07 hours.

The train will run at a maximum speed of 350 km/ph and operating speed of 320 km/ph.

Each bullet will have 10 cars and the capacity to accommodate 750 people.

The ambitious Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train will be a landmark for the country's advent for advanced technology and will go a long way in "discarding" 160 year-old obsolete system. Train mishaps and derailment may vanish, hopes Government when "updated" technology arrives.

Out of 508 km stretch, 351 km is in Gujarat, 156 km in Maharashtra while there will be 21 km underground corridors and out of this 7 km is underneath sea near Thane Creek.

The project will give boost to economy and employment as it will generate 20,000 indirect construction job and 4,000 direct employment for operations. Besides, it will also give a boost to urban and industrial development along the corridor.

It will also ensure additional job for 20,000 more people during construction period.

During his stint as Lalu Prasad Yadav as Railway Minister also toyed with the idea. In fact, Lalu Prasad also had traveled in bullet train and announced that he would float global tenders for accomplishing the project.