Technology
that about a quarter of out of 131,000
bridges are over 100 years old.
Provide 100% mechanised track
maintenance on the main routes to
provide for superior quality of track
laying and maintenance.
Shouldn't the focus be on modernising and
upgrading the entire system instead of investing
98000 crores in HSR?
The objective of the project is to reduce train
travel time between Ahmedabad and Mumbai
from the current eight hours to two hours. The
Shinkansen trains in Japan carry between 1300
and 1600 passengers in each train. That is equal
to what 7 Airbus 320 neo aircraft can carry –
1600 train passengers / 240 plane passengers
= 7 aircraft (240 passengers per Airbus 320
neo).
The reason behind the whopping investment
too is justified. But before justifying the
investment you should understand the
investment chronology of this project.
After so much chaos about 98k crore
investment nobody understood that its not
going to affect the mordernisation of current
system since Japan is funding the project up to
81% of the project cost, with a very low interest
component of 0.3%, payment period extending
to 40 years, and with no payment to be made for
the first 10 years.
Project tenure is of 8 years I which India will be
investing 15390 crore in eight years i.e. approx.
2000 crore a year. So all the load voices against
the investment in Bullet Trains are worthless
specially with such a long tenure of repayment
of Japanese Loan.
Our Take
Is it Expensive?
So we saw all types of assessment regarding
the introduction of Bullet Trains in India at the
cost of leaving already ailing Railway
Infrastructure.
Japanese systems are often more expensive
than their counterparts, because they run on
dedicated elevated guide ways, avoid traffic
crossings and incorporate disaster monitoring
systems. The largest part of Japan's cost is for
boring tunnels through mountains. India too
would have elevated corridor.
Well if someone has closely watched the
Railway Budget of 2015, Suresh Prabhu has
clearly conveyed that no new trains would be
announced to add burden to already suffering
infrastructure rather the funds would be used to
improve the infrastructure and introduce
technology to avoid accidents, fatigues and to
make trains more punctual.
“The next five years should change the face of
Indian Railways. Faster trains, modern trains,
swanky stations, skilled staff, should be the
railways of tomor