Daijiworld Media Network
Jul 4: The ambitious Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project will soon be a reality, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe presiding over the ground-breaking ceremony in Gandhinagar, likely to take place on September 17.
The ceremony will officially mark the beginning of the project which is estimated to be Rs 97,636 crore.
Japanese Prime Minister Abe will tentatively visit India between September 14 to 17. Incidentally, PM Modi’s birthday falls on September 17 and the ceremony may be planned to coincide with his birthday.
The proposed 508 km long Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail corridor will cover 12 stations and will have a 21 km tunnel under the sea. The train will reduce travel time between two cities to 2 hours and run at a maximum speed of 350 kmph. Currently, the travel time between the 2 cities is around 7 hours.
Around 81% of the funding for the project will come by way of a loan from Japan. A delegation from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which is the main funding agency for the bullet train project, will hold negotiations with top railway ministry and Niti Aayog officials to finalise the loan agreement.
Soil testing for the project was began in February this year. Currently, a geo-technical survey is underway after which a location survey will be held to mark the alignment and exact spots for the pillars.
Construction of the corridor is expected to start in 2018 and is estimated to be completed by 2023.