<p>New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Japan this week may set the stage for India to procure the most advanced quake-safe E10 bullet trains, which the East Asian nation itself would deploy for commercial service in 2030.</p><p>Modi and his counterpart in Tokyo, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, are likely to discuss the procurement of E10 bullet trains, being developed by East Japan Railway Company, for the 508-kilometre Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail Corridor of India.</p>.Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train service to start soon, travel time little over 2 hours: Ashwini Vaishnaw.<p>Modi will leave New Delhi on Thursday for an official visit to Japan. He and Ishiba will hold the 15th India-Japan annual summit on Friday. </p><p>“The 15th summit will give both prime ministers the opportunity to do an in-depth review of the bilateral ties, take stock of progress in the last few years across multiple domains, and, of course, as is usual, exchange views on regional and global issues of importance,” Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri told journalists in New Delhi on Tuesday. </p><p>“This will also be an opportunity to launch several new initiatives to build greater resilience in the relationship, and to respond to emerging opportunities and challenges.”</p><p>With Modi and Ishiba likely to explore Japan’s participation in future bullet train projects in India, beyond the one between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, the summit in Tokyo on Friday might result in the launch of a next-generation mobility partnership, sources in New Delhi told DH.</p><p>New Delhi and Tokyo had signed a Memorandum of Understanding in December 2015 for the development of India’s first high-speed rail corridor between Mumbai and Ahmedabad with the Shinkansen technology of Japan.</p><p>It was initially agreed that the E5 series bullet trains currently in use in Japan would be sent to India to run between Mumbai and Ahmedabad.</p><p>However, after the plan to launch the new E10 series bullet trains in Japan by 2030 was announced, Tokyo offered the same to India.</p><p>The E10 bullet trains will have a maximum speed of 320 kilometres per hour, the same as the E5 trains. But the new E10 series of trains will have highly advanced safety systems to prevent derailment during earthquakes, apart from provisions for switching to driverless automated operation in the future.</p><p>The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is funding Rs 88,000 crore (81 per cent) of the total estimated cost of Rs 1,08,000 crore for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad-High-Speed-Rail (MAHSR) project. The remaining 19 per cent (Rs 20,000 crore) will be funded through equity contributions from the Ministry of Railways (50 per cent) and the state governments of Maharashtra (25 per cent) and Gujarat (25 per cent).</p><p>Despite the delay in land acquisition, 392 kilometres of pier construction, 329 km of girder casting and 308 kilometres of girder launching have been completed till now. The construction of the 21-km-long undersea tunnel between Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai and Thane has also started.</p>
<p>New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Japan this week may set the stage for India to procure the most advanced quake-safe E10 bullet trains, which the East Asian nation itself would deploy for commercial service in 2030.</p><p>Modi and his counterpart in Tokyo, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, are likely to discuss the procurement of E10 bullet trains, being developed by East Japan Railway Company, for the 508-kilometre Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail Corridor of India.</p>.Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train service to start soon, travel time little over 2 hours: Ashwini Vaishnaw.<p>Modi will leave New Delhi on Thursday for an official visit to Japan. He and Ishiba will hold the 15th India-Japan annual summit on Friday. </p><p>“The 15th summit will give both prime ministers the opportunity to do an in-depth review of the bilateral ties, take stock of progress in the last few years across multiple domains, and, of course, as is usual, exchange views on regional and global issues of importance,” Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri told journalists in New Delhi on Tuesday. </p><p>“This will also be an opportunity to launch several new initiatives to build greater resilience in the relationship, and to respond to emerging opportunities and challenges.”</p><p>With Modi and Ishiba likely to explore Japan’s participation in future bullet train projects in India, beyond the one between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, the summit in Tokyo on Friday might result in the launch of a next-generation mobility partnership, sources in New Delhi told DH.</p><p>New Delhi and Tokyo had signed a Memorandum of Understanding in December 2015 for the development of India’s first high-speed rail corridor between Mumbai and Ahmedabad with the Shinkansen technology of Japan.</p><p>It was initially agreed that the E5 series bullet trains currently in use in Japan would be sent to India to run between Mumbai and Ahmedabad.</p><p>However, after the plan to launch the new E10 series bullet trains in Japan by 2030 was announced, Tokyo offered the same to India.</p><p>The E10 bullet trains will have a maximum speed of 320 kilometres per hour, the same as the E5 trains. But the new E10 series of trains will have highly advanced safety systems to prevent derailment during earthquakes, apart from provisions for switching to driverless automated operation in the future.</p><p>The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is funding Rs 88,000 crore (81 per cent) of the total estimated cost of Rs 1,08,000 crore for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad-High-Speed-Rail (MAHSR) project. The remaining 19 per cent (Rs 20,000 crore) will be funded through equity contributions from the Ministry of Railways (50 per cent) and the state governments of Maharashtra (25 per cent) and Gujarat (25 per cent).</p><p>Despite the delay in land acquisition, 392 kilometres of pier construction, 329 km of girder casting and 308 kilometres of girder launching have been completed till now. The construction of the 21-km-long undersea tunnel between Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai and Thane has also started.</p>
