PM Modi & Shinzo Abe lay foundation stone for Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail project

India’s first bullet train dream will soon be a reality with Prime Minister Narendra Modiand his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe laying the foundation stone for the ambitious project today. Not just that, if Indian Railwayshas its way, you may get to travel on the Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train in less than 5 years time! The Narendra Modi government has set an ambitious deadline of starting the bullet train on August 15, 2022 – the day that India marks its 75th year of Independence. The gigantic infrastructure project that is going to cost India approximately Rs 1,10,000 crore. The bullet train or high-speed train project was originally scheduled to be completed in 2023, but Railway Minister Piyush Goyal has been quoted as saying that PM Modi is confident that Indian engineers will achieve the feat in lesser time. The bullet train project, which has been in works for some years now, was given the clearance by Modi government in 2015. The unprecedented scale of the infrastructure projects assumes special significance given the fact that it comes under ‘Make in India’. Not only that, Piyush Goyal is confident that once India absorbs the technology of making bullet trains, it will be able to export to the world as well! That’s just one amazing fact about the project, though! From a 7 kilometre long under-sea tunnel to a maximum speed of 350 kmph – we take a look at 10 mind-blowing facts about India’s first bullet train project: Bullet train in India: This Shinkansen E5 Japanese high-speed train is coming to India; check stunning pics 1. Cheaper than flights? The government, in its own words, aims to keep the bullet train ride “affordable for all”. Railways officials, quoted by PTI, have said that the fare would be comparable to that of Rajdhani Express AC-2 tier. 2. Seating capacity and frequency: Japan’s Shinkansen E5 series of bullet trains have been identified for the project. The bullet train – with executive and economy-class seats – will have 10 coaches that will be able to seat as many as 750 passengers. Later, Indian Railways proposes to add 6 more coaches to take the seating capacity to 1,250 passengers. Initially, 35 bullet trains will be operated. By 2053 this number is likely to go up to 105. The bullet trains are expected to do 70 Ahmedabad-Mumbai sorties in a day. While 24 bullet trains will be imported from Japan, the rest will be manufactured in India, reported IANS.