123Pune.com

MUMBAI: Can Mumbaikars hope to zip across the state in bullet trains? Well, it may take years to come but that's what the state government is
planning for its major cities.

The rail connections between Mumbai and other places, like Nashik and Pune, may be based on the bullet train technology of Japan. Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad said the bullet train technology was much cheaper than the Maglev one and could be used as a link between cities in Maharashtra.

Gaikwad has just come back from a tour of China, Malaysia and Japan. He was pasrt of a top-level government team, which had gone there to survey the infrastructure and transport development in these countries. "The cost of having a transport system based on the Maglev technology in Shanghai comes to Rs 600 crore per km, while the bullet trains in Japan can be built at one-third of the amount.''

The state had already announced its plans for having rapid connections between the main cities of the state and had said it was examining various technologies, including that of Maglev, which was in use in Europe and Shangai.

Government sources said the state was pushing for high-speed trains on the Mumbai-Nagpur route as it wanted to develop Nagpur into an air cargo hub__ an advanced train technology will only assist the effort. Six firms have submitted expression of interest letters for the state governments' proposal for this route.

The bullet trains, a source said, are being discussed for the Pune-Ahmedabad-Mumbai route and are expected to reduce the time taken for the 660-km distance between Pune and Ahmedabad by half. Gaikwad said, "Bullet trains can run at 300 km per hour and it will take just four hours to reach Nagpur. However, the railways will have to change the foundations of the tracks to enable the trains to ply at such a speed.

Bullet trains

Bullet trains or the trains on the Shinkansen in Japan, a network of high speed railway lines, were introduced in October 1964 and ran from Tokyo to Osaka. The first trains plied at 210 km per hour and later the speed was increased to 220 km per hour. In most plcaes, the speed has now reached 300 km per hour. The Tokaido line is the busiest high speed rail line and carries 375,000 passengers a day.
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