Two-hour travel time by train between Mumbai and Ahmedabad to get true!

India and Japan have moved closer to inking an agreement on high speed train services, also called bullet train, the first likely to run between Mumbai and Ahmedabad

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: Imagine, a journey between Mumbai and Ahmedabad which takes around seven hours, gets cut down to just two hours! This is not a figment of imagination, but may soon become a reality. With Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit to India from December 11-1, India and Japan have moved closer to inking an agreement on high speed train services, also called bullet train.

The bullet train project will be part of the high speed train corridor that is proposed between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, to be followed on the other routes.

The high speed bullet train is expected to run at more than 300 km per hour. The highest trains that currently runs in India is Gatiman Express betwen New Delhi and Agra, at the speed of 160 km per hour, and Delhi-Bhopal Shatabdi that runs at 150 km per hour.

According The Economic Times report, PM Modi and PM Abe had agreed to collaborate on India's bullet train project during PM Modi's visit to Japan in 2014. Bullet trains was also a pre-poll promise by Modi. 

A team from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has studied the feasibility of building the 505-kilometre corridor linking Mumbai with Ahmedabad and has concluded that it would be technically and financially viable.

The repot added that given the scale and novelty of the project, the Japanese government is keen to discuss every detail to avoid any misinterpretation in future. Besides firming up costs, there are details on technology transfer, skilled labour, equipment manufacturing and maintenance that have to finalised. The aim is to ensure the project is operational by 2024.