India, New Delhi: Under the upcoming bullet train service plan, Ministry of Railways has planned total of 12 stations linking Mumbai and Ahmedabad city namely Mumbai, Thane, Virar, Boisar, Vapi, Bilimora, Surat, Bharuch, Vadodara, Anand, Ahmedabad and Sabarmati.
The Ministry of Railways has also proposed a tariff for the upcoming bullet train service between Mumbai and Ahmedabad that will be 1.5 times more than the first class AC fare prevailing now, parliament was informed on Wednesday.
Also, the first phase of the bullet network will have a maximum design speed of 350 km per hour and an operating speed of 320 km per hour. The total journey time of the fast train will be 2.07 hours and of trains stopping at each station will be 2.58 hours. The ministry expects around 36,000 daily users per day both ways by 2023 which is expected to go up to 186,000 by 2053.The total completion cost will be approximately Rs.97,636 crore.
In a debate in the Lok Sabha last week, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu had brushed aside criticism of bullet trains being an expensive proposition for the country, saying the government had managed to secure a soft loan of Rs.1 lakh crore from Japan at a mere 0.1 percent interest. “The technology to be used for bullet trains will help improve the services of normal trains and the integration of signalling system,” said Prabhu, wondering if a “deliberate misinformation” campaign was going on against the introduction of such trains.