Why in news?
Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail (MAHSR), an Ind0-Japan collaborative project to be inaugurated shortly at Ahmedabad.
What are the significance of this bullet train initiative?
- Investments -Japan will provide a soft loan of about Rs 90,000 crore at a minuscule interest rate of 0.1 per cent over 50 years.
- More than 80 per cent of the project cost is being funded by the government of Japan.
- The repayment of the loan is to begin after 15 years of receiving the loan.
- Manufacturing -The MAHSR project has a twin objective of “localised manufacture” and “transfer of technology”.
- Employment -This project is likely to generate employment for about 20,000 workers, who will then be equipped to take up construction of more such projects in India.
- The new areas where construction skills would be developed are ballast-less track, under sea tunnelling
- Capacity building -A dedicated High Speed Rail Training Institute is being developed at Vadodara, will be fully equipped with Japanese equipment and facilities.
- This institute will be functional by the end of 2020, and train about 4,000 staff in the next three years, who will then be utilised for operation and maintenance.
- Faster Connectivity -A “rapid train” service with only two stops at Surat and Vadodara and a slower service that halts at 10 stations en route.
- The “rapid train” would complete the journey in 2 hours and 7 minutes, while the slower service would take 2 hours and 58 minutes.
- High-end technology -The project is set to provide reliable and comfortable service with high standards of safety.
- The technology regarding disaster predictions and preventions will also be acquired as part of the project.
Source: Indian Express
