India's first bullet train project connecting Ahmedabad to Mumbai. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe will set the groundwork for India’s first bullet train project in Ahmedabad on Thursday.

The 534-km Rs1 trillion high-speed rail project will operate trains with average speeds of 200-250kmph.  This will be a game-changer in terms of inter-urban connectivity and set up India as a market for new technologies. Japan, which has full-fledged in evolving such technologies and is seeking opportunities for investments, is giving a loan that would cover 80% of the estimated project cost at 0.5% interest, with a 15-year suspension followed by a 35-year payback period. Now we have both financial and technological support from Japan to build this in reality.

The government has said the bullet train technology will transform the railways to make upheaval.

The inside reports Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project:

The train will have top speeds of 320-350 km per hour and it is anticipated to lessen travel time between the two cities to around 2 hours from the existing 7-8 hours. The ticket charge could be in the range of Rs 3000 - Rs 5,000.It will take 2.58 hours to reach the destination. Rapid high-speed will cover the distance in 2.07 hours.

Initially, each high-speed train will have 10 cars and the capacity to accommodate 750 people, The Times of India said. It will increase to 16 cars that will accommodate 1,200 people.

According to initial estimates, around 1.6 crore people are projected to travel by the bullet train annually. By 2050, around 1.6 lakh commuters should travel by the high-speed train on a daily basis.

On the Ahmedabad-Mumbai route, 12 stations have been projected. These are Mumbai, Thane, Virar, Boisar, Vapi, Bilimora, Surat, Bharuch, Vadodara, Anand, Ahmedabad, and Sabarmati.

The railways will only need around 825 hectares of land for the project as 92% of the route will be elevated, six per cent will set off through tunnels and only the left over two per cent will be on the ground. India’s longest tunnel -- 21-km-long -- will be excavating between Boisar and BKC in Mumbai and 7km of which will be under the sea.

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