DURBAN - The bullet train being built is a collaboration between India and Japan.
The government has set the date for the 15th of August 2022 of when the train will run for the first time, the 75th anniversary of India’s independence.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe laid the foundation stone for the railway project this past Thursday.
India will begin work on bullet train line that will cost Rs1,10,000-crore which is around R2,2 billion.
The train will run between Mumbai, the financial hub of India and Ahmedabad.
The train will cut down the travelling time between the two places from eight hours to three hours.
The maximum speed of the train will be 217mph (350km/h), which is twice the speed of the fastest train in India.
The project will cost R1.8 billion and will be funded from a loan from Japan, with an interest rate of 0.1%.
The train was a part of Modi’s modernisation plan that he campaigned with in the 2014 elections.
The government said that 1,5 million jobs will be created by the project.
There will be two types of trains that will run. The high speed train will stop at 10 stations along the route between Mumbai and Ahmedabad. The rapid speed train will only stop at the major stations.
India is home to the oldest and fourth longest train network. Indian trains cover a distance of more than 67000 km.