Prime Minister Narendra Modi will put up Mahatma Gandhi’s Sabarmati Ashram on the bullet train map between Ahmedabad and Mumbai.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will put up Mahatma Gandhi’s Sabarmati Ashram on the bullet train map between Ahmedabad and Mumbai. To be built with Japanese assistance, the two ends of the high-speed corridor will be the Bandra-Kurla complex in Mumbai and Ahmedabad, with Sabarmati, a major stopover, also to be equ-ipped with the only depot for the ambitious project.
The Ahmedabad-Mumbai corridor will consist of a 27 km long tunnel. Of the 508 km-long route, 64 per cent is to be constructed on embankment.
“To begin with there will be about 9-12 train sets running between Ahmedabad and Mumbai to ensure availability of a train at every hour. A few of the train sets (electro-multiple units) will be imported, but afterwards they will be manufactured as part of the Make in India initiative,” said a senior official of the railway board. By 2023, the joint Japan-India comprehensive feasibility study has pegged 35 trains each way each day to go up to 105 trains each way each day by 2053. The study had also pegged fare on the bullet trains to be one and a half times that of AC first class tariff in other trains.
“There will be 12 stations in the high speed corridor — Mumbai, Thane, Virar, Boisar, Vapi, Bilimora, Surat, Bharuch, Vadodra, Anand, Ahmedabad and Sabarmati. A massive changeover facility of trains will need be created at Ahmedabad for linkages with neighbouring cities in Rajsthan and other states,” said the official.
The Railways has identified Spain for the feasibility study of another high speed corridor between Mumbai and Nagpur, while China has been identified to conduct the study for the stretch between New Delhi and Nagpur (1000 km).
The Indo-Japanese study had pegged the cost of constructing the high speed corridor between Ahmedabad and Mumbai at Rs 140 crore a km. Incidentally, Railways spends about Rs 12 crore to lay a track of one km. “A separate company will be created under the ownership of the Indian Railways to run the trains on the high speed corridor. As of now there is no view within the Railways to allow private operators to run the bullet trains,” said the official.
