India's bullet train dream closer to reality as Modi-Abe set to green flag project

Mumbai: India's dream for laying high-speed rail corridor networks across country is going to get a further push as reports say Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe are set to lay foundation stone for Ahmedabad-Mumbai High-Speed Rail Network, according to a report in The Financial Express.

The project cost of the 516-km long route on India's western map, according to some preliminary estimates, has been pegged at Rs 1 lakh crore or $16 billion. The foundation stone laying ceremony will take place in Ahmedabad on September 14 where Abe will also remain present. Abe is also likely to pay a visit to Sabarmati Ashram during his brief Gujarat trip.

For the uninitiated, the Ahmedabad-Mumbai High-Speed Rail Network is India's first high-speed rail corridor being built as a joint venture partnership between the Indian and the Japanese governments. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is arriving in India on his three days official visit and is expected to sign as many as 10 memorandums of understandings.

Abe will also accompany Modi to the latter's home state Gujarat which has so far received $1 billion worth of investments from Japan. On Abe's visit, that investment is likely to be raised to over $3 billion.

Once the bullet train starts plying between the two cities, travel time taken will also come down substantially and the project will get India a place among countries famous for high speed rail corridors.