Metro Rail News November 2017

extra-spacious toilets for wheelchair-bound
passengers, multi- purpose room for breast
feeding and sick passengers, wall-mounted type
urinals, baby toilet seats and western style
toilets.
4. Stations:
Covering a distance of 508 kilometres, the bullet
train between the two business hubs of
Ahmedabad and Mumbai will cover a total of 12
stations; Mumbai, Thane, Virar, Boisar, Vapi,
Bilimora, Surat, Bharuch, Vadodara, Anand,
Ahmedabad and Sabarmati.
5. Travel duration and speed:
Two trip options will be offered by Indian
Railways. With stops at limited stations – Surat
and Vadodara – the train will take 2 hours 7
minutes to travel between Mumbai and
Ahmedabad. However, the train that will stop at
all stations will take 2 hours and 58 minutes. The
bullet train will run at an operating speed of 320
kmph and a maximum speed of 350 kmph!
6. Under-sea tunnel:
Passengers will get to travel in a 21-km long
tunnel while riding the bullet train – 7km of
which would be under the sea.
7. Peter not paying for Paul?
That’s what Indian Railways claims. The bullet
train project is being made at a cost of Rs 1,10,000
crore. Out of this, the Japanese government is
providing a loan of Rs 88,000 crore at a “miniscule”
interest rate of 0.1%. The loan can be repaid over a
time span of 50 years, with the repayment
beginning 15 years after disbursement. The loan
interest ranges between Rs 7-8 crore a month and
the government claims it will not put any strain on
existing financial resources. “Clearly Peter is not
paying for Paul,” the government claims.
8. Make in India & Transfer of Technology
objectives:
One of the biggest benefits of the bullet train
project will come from the fact that Indian
engineers and labour will gain knowledge and skills
to ‘Make in India’ the parts and rolling stock. This,
in turn, would be beneficial for future high-speed
rail projects that are being planned for other routes
in the country – and as Railway Minister Piyush
Goyal said – we may even start exporting!
9. Jobs and Skill India:
According to the Modi government, the project is
likely to generate employment for about 20,000
workers during the construction phase. These
workers will be trained specially to take up
construction of such projects in India. “Some of the
new areas where construction skills would be
developed are ballast-less track, under sea tunnel
etc,” says the government, adding that a dedicated
High-Speed Rail Training Institute is being
developed at Vadodara.
10. Safety:
The train delay record of Shinkansen is less than a
minute with zero fatality, says Japan. Not only that,
the technology for disaster predictions and
preventions will also be acquired. This would make
sure safety is maintained in case of any natural
calamity such as an earthquake etc. Modi
government hopes that with this technology, India
will leapfrog to the cutting edge of latest train
developments.
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