Mumbai is the fourth most populous city in the world with a population of 20.5 million people, 88 per cent of which use public transportation on a daily basis.
With a city’s population almost equivalent to the population of many countries, faster public transportation is key.
To jumpstart and enhance India’s transport technology, Japan has plans to invest in constructing India’s first ever bullet train in Mumbai.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was on a three-day visit to India this past weekend to announce the project. Both countries signed off on the deal on Saturday to go forward with the proposal.
The bullet train is planned to link the cities of Mumbai and Ahmedabad, expanding across a distance of 527 kilometers.
According to Google maps, India’s current train takes approximately eight hours to travel from Mumbai to Ahmedabad. The new bullet train will cut the travel time down to approximately less than two hours, operating at a speed of 300 to 350 kilometers per hour.
The bullet train will not only make travelling faster and more convenient, but it's expected to keep fare costs down to a minimum, with talks that it could possibly be the cheapest high-speed train service in the world.
The Japanese team working on the train's feasability study established a "fare box revenue model," estimating that the fare will only cost one-and-a-half times more than other current trains traveling on the same route.
"It is the wish and dream of every Indian that India runs a bullet train as early as possible. The Indian Railways is on its way to fulfill that long cherished dream," Railway Minister D V Sadanand Gowda said in a statement during the presentation of the 2014-15 railway budget.
All positivity aside, the people of India have one question, "Why construct a bullet train running on a route between Mumbai and Ahmedabad?" PM Modi is from the province of Gurjat and thus it might legitamately be argued as the number one reason for their route choice, however according to the project's rationale, it comes down to four factors: traffic, rich travelers, flat terrain and land acquisition.
The reality is, Mumbai-Ahmedabad is among the busiest lines in the country with the majority of travellers made up of business executives and entreprenueurs, not hesitant to pay a high ticket price for the trip.
Japan exported its bullet train technology in the past with a similar deal made with Taiwan in 2007.
The eight- to 10-year project will cost approximately $15 billion US and is expected to carry 40,000 daily passengers by 2023.
Main Image Photo Credit: Wali Zahid
Nicole Singh
Author
Nicole is a bilingual professional with a journalism background who adores everything to do with fashion, culture, and Bollywood. She always had a passion for writing since a young age and decided to follow that dream. She has a sense of working in the field through news publications writt...
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