Ahmedabad: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Prime Minsiter Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone of the ambitious Rs 1.08 lakh crore (USD 17 billion) Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train project on Thursday.
Highlights of the high-speed rail project:
The bullet train will run at an average speed of 320 km per hour with a maximum speed of 350 km per hour.
508-km Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Project will entail an estimated cost of Rs 1,10,000 crore.
Initially, the train will have 10 coaches with a total seating capacity of 750 passengers. In the future, it is proposed to have 16 coaches with a seating capacity of 1,250 passengers.
The railways will only require around 825 hectares of land for the project as 92 percent of the route will be elevated, six percent will go through tunnels and only the remaining two percent will be on the ground.
The high speed train will also pass through the country's biggest tunnel of 21 km, of which seven km will be under the sea.
Japan was also ready to transfer the technology to India and sponsoring the project.
On the Ahmedabad-Mumbai route, total 12 stations have been proposed that include Mumbai, Thane, Virar, Boisar, Vapi, Bilimora, Surat, Bharuch, Vadodara, Anand, Ahmedabad and Sabarmati.
The distance of 508 km will be covered in two hours and seven minutes by the bullet train if it stops at four stations namely Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat and Mumbai.
A greater stretch of this link, 351 km, will run through Gujarat and 156 km through Maharashtra.
Newly-appointed Railway Minister Piyush Goyal has assured that the fare of the high-speed bullet train would be "affordable for all".
In a day, the high-speed train will make 70 Ahmedabad-Mumbai sorties.
