The popular Japanese bullet train technology could be seen in India soon. The Japanese government looks promising to invest heavily for creating high speed railway systems in our country. The Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh and the Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe have together issued a joint statement recently, which mentions the course of co-operation between the two countries on setting up high speed railway systems in India. Both the countries have signed the Exchange of Notes for yen loan totaling up to $424 billion (Rs. 25 lakh crores).
The yen loan includes $71 billion (Rs. 4 lakh crores) for the Mumbai Metro Line-lll project as well as the yen loan of the fiscal year 2012 for $353 billion (Rs. 21 lakh crores) for eight projects. Our Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh has admitted Japan’s interest for investing in the introduction of high speed railway systems in India and has appreciated the advanced level of expertise and technology used in designing and implementing bullet train systems in Japan. The project for bullet trains in India will be planned depending upon the infrastructure priorities, commercial viability and financial resources in the country.
The joint statement says that both the parties have decided to co-finance a joint feasibility study of high speed railway systems on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad route. The Mumbai-Ahmedabad route line would measure around 500 kms at an estimated cost of up to one trillion yen (Rs. 60,000 crores). They are also considering upgrading the speed of passenger trains on the existing Delhi-Mumbai route to 160-200 km/hr with a semi-high speed railway system. The talks between the two countries are on and we can experience travelling time to get significantly less with the upgraded technology in the future.
