The Mumbai-Ahmedabad high speed rail corridor would be completed in six years and its fare will be less than airfare, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said on Wednesday. Maintaining that the ambitious project is doable, Prabhu said in Lok Sabha that the high-speed train project would be cost-effective. The high speed bullet train is expected to cover 508 km between Mumbai and Ahmedabad in two hours, running at a maximum speed of 350 kmph and operating speed of 320 kmph. At present, Duronto Express takes seven hours to cover the distance between the two cities.
When it was pointed out that huge funds have been allocated for the project, which might hamper those in other parts of the country, Prabhu said, “There was no regional bias. Every state has got more than double than earlier.” The project has been sanctioned with technical and financial assistance from Japan and the joint feasibility study of the project has already been done by Japanese International Agency.