The Rail Minister of India, Ashwini Vaishnaw, has announced that the first bullet train service of India will commence very soon, cutting the travel time between Mumbai and Ahmedabad. According to the reports, the travel time will be reduced to two hours and seven minutes.
Notably, Ayodhya Express was inaugurated by the Union minister, and Rewa-Pune Express was flagged off by Madhya Pradesh CM Mohan Yadav, and Jabalpur-Raipur Express was flagged off by Vishnu Deo, according to some reports.
While inaugurating the Express train, Vaishnaw was quoted as saying, “The first bullet train from Mumbai to Ahmedabad will start very soon, and the work on the project is going on at a fast pace. When it starts running, the journey from Mumbai to Ahmedabad will take only two hours and seven minutes.”
According to the reports, the first-ever bullet train of India will run between 508 kilometers, between Mumbai and Ahmedabad. The initial stop of the train will be the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC), Mumbai, and throughout the journey, it will pass by some major stations of Gujarat, including Vapi, Anand, Vadodara, Surat, and Ahmedabad.
Notably, the speed of the train will be as high as 320 km per hour.
Speaking at a meeting, the Union minister also highlighted upcoming railway schemes in Gujarat, starting with a new train between Porbandar and Rajkot, coming up a coach maintenance depot at Ranavav station, a rail over bridge in Porbandar town, two Gati Shakti cargo terminals, and a container terminal at a proposed port in Bhavnagar.
There are some fresh projects as well, as well as in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh governments, in both states have been a double-engineer of the government, and this is why the projects are increasingly developing more rapidly.
Vaishnaw asserted that 11 years of the Narendra Modi government witnessed 34,000 km of new railway track laid down, and nearly 12km of new tracks are added in the country on a daily basis. According to him, a country has never undertaken such a project before; over 1,300 railway stations are currently being redeveloped.
Reportedly, Vaishnaw was quoted as saying, “No one has undertaken such a big work to date. When railway stations are renovated in developed countries, they are done systematically by closing down all stations and trains.”
He furthermore added, “There is a huge population here, and everyone's expectation is that work should progress, trains should run, and the station should also be redeveloped. Taking all these challenges into account, Modiji has a big vision today regarding the renovation of these stations.”
Along with this, he praised the Modi Government and highlighted that the administration has worked day and night to introduce world-class trains, including Vande Bharat Express, Amrit Bharat Express, and Namo Bharat Express. He mentioned, “Eight Amrit Bharat trains have been launched so far. They have features like Vande Bharat trains, but the fare is low. These trains have been constructed using new-age technology, and you will be surprised to hear the emotions expressed by passengers using these trains.”
It is worth mentioning that the event was also attended by Union Ministers Mansukh Mandaviya and Nimuben Bambhaniya.