Bullet train: Will it be India’s big-bang moment

Dubai: Will an average Indian be ready to shell out Rs3,000 (Dh157) for a train ride that lasts a little over two hours? The comfort, convenience and to some extent even the luxury notwithstanding, the debate is very much on. In a country where 163 million people do not have access to clean drinking water, is a high-speed train project that will cost the national exchequer $15 billion (Dh55 billion) even worth planning?

But by that same token, even space exploration is debatable. And yet, India happens to be one of only four countries and the first in Asia to have successfully completed a Mars mission.

The point is, for a 1.3 billion-strong nation, with a railway network that ferries 23 million passengers daily across 66,687km, there can be nothing wrong or illogical about planning for a high-speed rail corridor, that goes by the name ‘bullet train’ in common parlance.

A bullet train project should ideally have been planned much before because it could well have been a mascot of an India that aims higher in order for it to claim its rightful place in the league of nations that have successfully modernised their mass transit systems and taken an exponential leap in reducing carbon footprint and addressing passenger concerns over time, safety and comfort.

So theoretically, at least, there can be nothing wrong in rolling out a bullet train.

But the problem is that with India’s traditional rail network hamstrung with an acute shortage of funds, and with its overall railways infrastructure — from signalling to track maintenance to collision avoidance technology — still struggling to meet global standards, the question lingers over the feasibility of a high-speed rail corridor that is so utterly capital-intensive.

The challenge is regarding implementation.

After feasibility studies were conducted for several routes across the country, the Union Government finally zeroed in on just one corridor for the time being: Mumbai to Ahmedabad — a distance of 508km that the Japanese-manufactured Shinkansen rake intends to cover in two hours and eight minutes, at a maximum speed of 340km/h.

There are challenges galore: From farmer agitations over land acquisition to meeting safety parameters for a high-speed train service. The costs are also mind-boggling. Yet, by at least showing its intent to get this project off the blocks, the government has got its ambition quotient right. Work started in 2017 and August 15, 2022, has been tentatively fixed as the inauguration day when India’s first bullet train is supposed to roll out of the underground station at Bandra-Kurla Complex in Mumbai — coinciding with the country’s 75th Independence Day celebrations.

But before that, there are miles to go, literally and figuratively.