- Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe launched the high speed rail project with India PM, Narendra Modi
- Modi said the bullet train scheme will bring ‘speed and employment’
- Once completed, the train will travel at an average speed of 250 kilometres per hour
- See more news from India at www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe launched the 508-km long Ahmedabad-Mumbai High Speed Rail project on Thursday with a groundbreaking ceremony at Sabarmati station in Ahmedabad.
Both leaders found unique ways to express the importance of this railway deal between India and Japan.
Modi focused on job creation, environment and progress that the bullet train will bring.
He said: ‘This is the new India, and the flight of its dreams is endless. The bullet train project will bring speed and employment. It is human-friendly and eco-friendly.’
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi (right) and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe signing documents
Ahmedabad: Prime Minister Narendra Modi (right) with Japan PM Shinzo Abe at the ground-breaking ceremony of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Project
Bullet train
Abe on the other hand emphasised the importance of this friendship and partnership and Modi’s vision of Make In India.
He said: ‘PM Modi is a farsighted leader. He made a decision of making New India and chose Japan as a partner. We completely support it. Japan is committed to the scheme of Make in India.’
A top government official said that during his career, he had not witnessed a single project that had gone from conception through to implementation at such pace, ironically adding that ‘speed was the key’.
Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
The `1 trillion-worth bullet train project will have a capacity to accommodate 750 people and is expected to drastically reduce travel time.
The train will travel at an average speed of 250 kilometres per hour and a top speed of about 320 km/h, twice the top speed of the fastest train in India.
It will stop at each of the 12 railway stations en route, but only for 165 seconds.
While many political parties are calling this venture a political gimmick, Modi emphasised it was a good deal for India as, ‘Japan will fund more than 80 per cent of the project’s cost, providing a 0.1 per cent interest loan due to be repaid over the next 50 years’.
Originally, completion of the project was pegged for December 2023, but during the launch, Modi said this would be a gift to India on her 75th Independence Day anniversary.
The bullet train will go from ‘Aapnu Amdavad to Aamchi Mumbai (My Ahmedabad to Our Mumbai)’, Modi said after the event.
Earlier, Japan joined India in condemning militism. In a joint statement, the two countries asked Islamabad to bring to justice the perpetrator of the 2008 Mumbai and the 2016 Pathankot attacks, allegedly carried out by Pakistan-based groups.