Today technology plays a critical role in defining the economy of the country. With the foundation of advanced and modern technology used, the other sectors also get affected. The construction of Ahmedabad Metro has been one major step for making Gujarat more developed. Now, with the Ahmedabad to Mumbai bullet train will be another milestone for the country. Currently, the fastest train between both the cities is the Ahmedabad Duronto Express at the maximum speed of 130km/h. After a lot of planning and clearance, this project has finally begun.
The high profile bullet train from Ahmedabad to the economic hub, Mumbai will be having 12 stops during the journey. It will only take two hours and 58 minutes to cover the distance which is currently covered by seven to eight hours between the two cities. The stops will be of 165 seconds each on the stations. The fare to travel through the bullet train will be between 3000 and 5000.
The Route:
The distance to be covered by the bullet train would be 508 kilometers. According to National High-Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL), the first bullet train might run between Surat and Bilimora. The proposed stations that the train would halt at are:
BKC (Bandra Kurla Complex) Station, Mumbai
Thane
Virar
Boisar
Vapi
Bilimora
Surat
Bharuch
Vadodara
Anand
Ahmedabad
Sabarmati junction
With this bullet train, it will become more accessible and more feasible to travel without any hassles. The train will be operating at a maximum speed of 320 kilometers, i.e., 200 miles per hour. The route of the bullet train will be mostly elevated. It will also be including a 21-kilometer tunnel of which 7 kilometers will be under the Arabian Sea.
Hurdles to cross:
The current problem that the government is facing is regarding land acquisition. India is not the first country to have been facing the challenge of land acquisitions; Indonesia did have the same problem regarding the same for a $6 billion high-speed rail project which would be connecting Jakarta and Bandung.
The bullet train will be passing through the agricultural land and mangrove forest. The farmers are not satisfied with the compensation provided for their property which is the main hurdle that the government needs to overcome. This hurdle might result in to delay of the target to complete it by 2023. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had been taking some consideration in order to acquire the land without forcing anyone.
After this, the Railway minister, Piyush Goyal expressed in confidence that they have been able to acquire the land without putting pressure on anyone. The landowners willingly gave the consent for land acquisition and the construction of the main stations has been started. There was much opposition during the proposal as well but the aim to provide the people of India with modern facilities and the ease of traveling become the priority.
Currently, out of 104 villages that are there on the proposed route, only 61 villages have given the consent for land acquisition. There are 20 villages in Thane, 39 in Palghar and 2 in Mumbai who has given the permission while others still have their doubts.
The start:
After overcoming the hurdles, the Vadodara railway station of the Western Railway zone of the Indian railways is ready to be revamped. The final design has been prepared by the experts for the beginning of the construction of the stations for the bullet train. There will be changes made on the platform 6 of the Vadodara station as the bullet train will be connected there. The height of the project station would be 20-22 meters and width will be 40 meters.
In order to install the girder, platform 7 of the Vadodara railway station will be dismantled which is presently used for locomotive reversal for the trains from Delhi to Gujarat. To cope up with the loss, the NHSCRL will develop the Chhayapuri station. This girde will be the longest girder in comparison to Japan’s Shinkansen network at 220meters.
Finance:
The estimated cost of the project is Rs1.1 Lakh crore which includes during construction costs and the import duties. In order to avoid land acquisitions, most of the line will be constructed on an elevated corridor which ultimately raised the price by an additional Rs10,000 crore. The corridor will be using Japan’s Shinkansen E5 series electric multiple units for the rolling stock. 20% of the components required will be delivered by Japan and manufactured in India
The funding will be provided by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) who will be offering for 81% of the project. The rest would be covered by the state governments of Gujarat and Maharashtra. JICA will provide a loan for Rs88,087 crore which would leave us for a 50-year loan at an interest of 0.1%.
First consignment:
As mentioned above regarding the components for construction, the first consignment of Japanese made goods for the bullet train arrived in Vadodara. The high strength concretes required for the high-speed rail project are only made in Japan. More than one lakh track slabs would be needed for laying the tracks, out of which 20 track slabs have already been supplied. Along with that 200-meter rails have also reached at HSRTI (High-Speed Rail Training Institute) set up by NHSRCL which will also be generating solar power for the power of the bullet train. The source would be the solar panels installed at the institute.
The High-Speed Rail project aims to get completed by 2023. The official target is to get the train on track by this period. We hope that it gets started soon and without any hassles.
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