5 Crucial Facts about India’s Newly Inaugurated High Speed Rail Project

Mumbai: The High Speed Rail Project is going to be one of the developing collaborations between the two countries i.e. Japan and India. The two countries have joined hands to come together in partnership for High Speed Rail Projects to boost the performance of Indian Railways.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart, Shinzo Abe inaugurated the high-profile project near the Sabarmati river. This will be India’s first bullet train project under the two countries collaboration that will make India’s dream soon a reality. The High Speed Rail Project is estimated to complete by 2022 and you may see yourself travelling in the Bullet Train within the period of next 5 years. The first project promises Bullet Trains running between Ahmedabad to/fro Mumbai in the next 5 years.

Apart from being a major leap in infrastructure development in India, this project signifies and sheds light on the friendly ties between India and Japan. As per the sources, this gigantic infrastructure project would be costing India approximately a whooping amount of Rs 1,10,000 crore.

5 Crucial aspects undertaken while planning this High Speed Rail project are as follows:

Bullet Train would be Cheaper than flights?

Well, the government shedding light over the project hints that the best part of this would be to keep the bullet train ride “affordable for all”. Railways officials said that the fare would be comparable to that of Rajdhani Express AC-2 tier.

Seating Capacity and Frequency Arrangements:

The Japan’s most known and identified Shinkansen E5 series of bullet trains would be used for the project. The bullet train will comprise of executive and economy-class seats like any other trains and will have 10 coaches that should be able to seat as many as 750 passengers. And if all goes well then there are chances later that Indian Railways might add 6 more coaches to accommodate 1,250 passengers. For now, as per the initial stage plan, 35 bullet trains will be operated.

Number of Halts:

The high speed bullet train between the two business hubs, Ahmedabad and Mumbai will cover a total of 12 stations viz; Mumbai, Thane, Virar, Boisar, Vapi, Bilimora, Surat, Bharuch, Vadodara, Anand, Ahmedabad and Sabarmati, covering a distance of total 508 kilometres.

Journey Duration and Speed:

The stipulated time frame to reach the two ends halting at all stations will take 2 hours and 58 minutes. Whereas, it has an option of ‘Two trip’ train offered by Indian Railways which will have stops on limited stations – Surat and Vadodara, taking around 2 hours 7 minutes only. The bullet train will run at a speed of 320 kmph and a maximum speed of 350 kmph.

Add-on Facilities:

On each station, there would be fast and multiple means of evacuation in order to increase the catchment and propensity to travel. Wherever metros are under construction between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, it would be important to provide seamless metro connectivity.

Plus at major stations, where passengers could move to other trains, the transfer would be seamless.

Future Expansion:

Once the overall idea of High Speed Rail concept is established, there are possibilities that it could witness rising demands for expansion. Wherein as per the earlier proposal, the line was actually to go beyond Mumbai to Pune but wasn’t found to be feasible.

However, such visioning would be useful in bringing greater support from the government of Maharashtra.