The travel time between Mumbai and Ahmedabad to be reduced by at least five hours. India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi and Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe laid the foundation stone for first bullet train project in Ahmedabad on 14th September 2017.
Image source: Timesnownews.com
Funding of the project
- The cost of the proposed bullet between Ahmedabad and Mumbai is Rs 1,10,000 crore.
- Japan will provide 80% of loan which is 88,000 crore. 20% will be funded by Central Government.
- Japan has offered loan such that Indian Government will have flexibility in paying for 15-years. So repayment concerns will start from the 16th year of operation.
- An interest rate is 0.1 percent with repayment period is 50 years beginning from the 16th year of operation
Revenue Model:
As per Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A) have given following report:
- The report is titled, “Dedicated High-Speed Railway (HSR) Networks in India: Issues in Development,”.
- To repay loan with interest on time, railway should ferry 100 trips per day carrying around 1,00,000 people per day.
- Though the fares structure are not certain if the Railways set the ticket price at Rs 1500 per person for a 300-km drive, then fifteen years after the operation it will have to ferry between 88,000 and 110,000 passengers every day
Train Travel
The total distance covered by the train will be 534 kilometers. 50 trips each will be needed one way totally 100 trips each day. So it works out be 3 trains each way every hour.
Two types of bullet trains are proposed having different speeds that is:
1) high-speed train & 2) rapid high-speed train.
First one will take 2 hours, 58 minutes to reach its destination stoping at all the ten stations on the proposed high-speed corridor between Mumbai and Ahmedabad. Second will take the distance in 2 hours, 7 minutes at major stations.