India’s first bullet train project : MAHSR
Passenger information
The
train will have a top speeds of 320-350 km per hour and it is expected to
reduce travel time between the two cities to around 2 hours from the existing
7-8 hours. The fares could be in the range of Rs 3000 - Rs 5,000.
Passengers
will have two speed options in trains:
•
High-speed: It will take 2.58 hours to reach the destination
•
Rapid high-speed: It will cover the distance in 2.07 hours.
Commuters and capacity
Initially,
each high speed train will have 10 cars and the capacity to accommodate 750
people, The Times of India said. It will increase to 16 cars that will
accommodate 1,200 people.
According
to initial estimates, around 1.6 crore people are expected to travel by the
bullet train annually. By 2050, around 1.6 lakh commuters should travel by the
high-speed train on a daily basis.
Stations
On
the Ahmedabad-Mumbai route, 12 stations have been proposed: Mumbai, Thane,
Virar, Boisar, Vapi, Bilimora, Surat, Bharuch, Vadodara, Anand, Ahmedabad and
Sabarmati.
Route
The
railways will only require around 825 hectares of land for the project as 92%
of the route will be elevated, six per cent will go through tunnels and only
the remaining two per cent will be on the ground. India’s longest tunnel --
21-km-long -- will be dug between Boisar and BKC in Mumbai, 7km of which will
be under the sea.
The
train tracks will elevated to 18 metres for most of its route to ensure the
train runs over the existing railway route. The remaining, less than 40km,
stretch will be under sea between Thane and Vasai, and underground in Mumbai,
reported The Indian Express.
Project
completion
The
508km-long Mumbai to Ahmedabad High Speed Rail
(MAHSR) is scheduled for completion in December 2023, but
commencement date has been sought to be advanced to August 2022.
Funding
To
fund the ambitious Rs 1,10,000-crore project, a loan of Rs 88,000 crore will be
taken from Japan. The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will fund
it at a low rate of interest of 0.1% per annum. This loan has to be repaid to
Japan in 50 years, with 15 years grace period.
Training and
job creation
The
government said it will create around 15 lakh new jobs in India.
A
dedicated High Speed Rail Training Institute will train about 4,000 technical
staff of the bullet train project, The Indian Express report said.
The
Japanese government has also offered training of Indian Railways officials in
Japan besides reserving fully-funded seats for the Master’s course in the
universities of Japan for them.
Second bullet
train project
The
Indian Railways will launch the country’s second high-speed train from
Delhi to Amritsar via Chandigarh. The train will run on standard broad gauge
and the project shall be completed by 2024. The proposed train will cover the
458-km-long route in 2 hours and 30 minutes running at a speed of 300-350 kmph,
reducing the travel time between New Delhi and Amritsar by about two and a half
hours.
Proposed
stops will be Ambala, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Jalandhar. The fare will be fixed
equivalent to that of Shatabdi’s AC executive class.
