New Delhi: The Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project has got a Rs 7000-crore boost, showed Budget documents released on Tuesday. The Finance ministry has set aside the amount for the high-speed corridor, which until now had remained only on paper. The estimated cost of the project is Rs 1 lakh crore.
The 508-km-long corridor being implemented by the High Speed Rail Corporation Limited. Last year there was no allocation made in the budget. The Bullet train is expected to cut travel time between the two cities from seven hours to close to three hours. It will run at speeds of 350 kmph with an average speed of 320 kmph. It will stop at 12 railway stations on the route.
In September last year, India and Japan signed a memorandum of understanding for this big-ticket project for which Japan will lend nearly nearly Rs 88,000 crore at 0.1 per cent interest.
The train will begin from Bandra Kurla Complex where it is expected to be closely connected with the metro rail having its route there. It will have a 21-km-long tunnel between Boisar and BKC, of which seven km will be underwater.
The railways will require around 825 hectares of land for the project as 92 percent of the route will be elevated, six percent would go through tunnels and only the remaining two percent would be on the ground.
The railways would run about around 35 bullet trains when it starts operation with about 70 trips per day. Initially, the train would have 10 coaches with a total seating capacity of 750 passengers. The train would require a cleaning time of four hours, after running for 20 hours. The government wants to start the services of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Network by August 15, 2022 to mark India’s 75th year of Independence.
