Work on Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train to start in 2017
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The railway administration plans to begin work on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail corridor in 2017, said Mohammed Jamshed, a member of the Railway Board, during his visit to the city on Tuesday.
Jamshed was in Mumbai for the bi-annual meeting with Chief Commercial Managers (CCM) from all 16 zones of Indian Railways and representatives from other Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs).
“The work on Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train should start next year. The project is already being monitored at the highest level. There is a supervisory committee consisting chairman railway board (CRB), National Institution Transforming India (NITI) Aayog and other government secretaries,” said Jamshed.
The Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train, a pet project of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will be the first of its kind in India. The project is expected to be operational by year 2023.
Once completed, it will cover the 500 km distance between Mumbai and Ahmedabad in roughly two hours. As of today, Mumbai and Ahmedabad journey takes an average of 7 hours.
The specially made rake will be able to hit speeds as high as 350 kmph, and operate at a speed of 320 kmph.
The estimated cost of the project is just over Rs 97,500 crore, a major part of which will come in the form of a loan from Japan.
During his visit, Jamshed also touched upon important aspects like redevelopment of stations, increasing ancillary revenue, improving the rail journey experience etc.
On the subject of revising the fares of Mumbai suburban railways in next year’s budget, Jamshed said, “We have no plans to revise the suburban fares as of now.”
As for increasing revenue and redevelopment of infrastructure, Jamshed said the railway board is working on a uniform policy, which will help standardize the process and make implementation easy.
