Just a few hours ride by train and you can reach China. Interesting isn’t it? We are going to witness a new bullet train in the future as China is looking forward to building a bullet train service that links China’s Kunming and India’s Kolkata so that whole Asia is well connected.
The Chinese diplomat is yet to reveal the details whether the route would follow the proposed Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar (BCIM) economic corridor that is estimated to run through Mandalay in Myanmar, Chittagong and Dhaka in Bangladesh ending in Kolkata.
“With joint efforts of India and China, a high-speed rail link could be established between the two cities,” Zhanwu said Chinese consul general in Kolkata, Ma Zhanwu, said on Wednesday. “It will only take a few hours to reach Kolkata from Kunming if the rail link becomes a reality,” he asserted.
“We may have a cluster of industries along the route. That increases the possibility of economic development of countries involved in the 2,800 km-long project,” he maintained.
Zhanwu sees India as a rising economy and said China wants to maintain good relations with neighbouring countries. He also stressed on the fact that despite the fall in the value of rupee of late, the inflation of Indian economy is irreversible.
Another important project:
A sensational development and changes are gradually creeping in as the PM Narendra Modi’s government is already on an important mission to transform the entire infrastructure of the Indian Railways. The future of the Indian trains will look far better than before.
According to a senior officer, India will purchase 18 bullet train sets from Japan at a staggering amount estimated to be about Rs 7,000 crore in an agreement that includes an assurance to transfer technology for local production.
India’s first bullet train is more likely to start running between Mumbai and Ahmedabad by the end of the year 2022. The high-speed train corridor is being built with the sheer assistance of Japan. The official went on to say that Japanese bullet trains are among the safest trains in the world, which means that the imported ones will have automatic protections systems to guarantee safety.
The country’s bullet train fare- the Mumbai-Ahmedabad route is expected to be used by 18,000 commuters with fares between the two cities likely to be less than Rs 3,000 in case of economy class. The trains will also have a first-class compartment with all facilities quite similar to those in airlines.
At the same time, Indian Railways, without wasting any time, will start the process of setting up a bullet train assembling facility in the country on a public-private participation (PPP) basis that will serve for future needs. The likes of Japanese train technology companies such as Kawasaki and Hitachi may set up facilities in India, the official added in a statement.
The real-time construction on the bullet train project is likely to spice up in January next year with Indian Railways confident of meeting the December 2018 deadline for acquiring land.
