First of
all, Indian Railways infrastructure is old, slow, overburdened and has
questionable safety record. Moreover, the increasing population of India, asks for
an improvement in transportation infrastructure. Thus, an upgrade to High-Speed
Rail (HSR) by Indian Railways has been overdue for a long time. The decision to
go with HSR represents a step in right direction.
But not
everyone shares my enthusiasm towards the project. The major criticism is
focused around the cost of the project. At a price tag of ₹ 98,000 crore ($
14.7 billion), there is no denying that this project is expensive. However, I’m
convinced that we should welcome bullet trains with open arms. Let me elaborate
on my rationale behind it.
Bullet Trains are Awesome
Japan first introduced the High-Speed Rail to the world in 1964. Since
then, many other countries like Germany, France and China have added HSR to
their railway networks. Yet, the Japanese world famous Shinkansen, commonly
known as ‘bullet train’, still is the best and represents a gold standard in
train travel.
Fifty years ago, when Japan took an $80 million loan from World Bank to
build its first bullet train, it faced fierce opposition. Harsh criticism were
made against the expensive project of a non-existent technology. Various
technical difficulties and out of budget expenditures made the leaders behind
Shinkansen project look crazy. However, since its inception, bullet trains have
changed the way people travel in Japan, spurred economic benefits and has shown
the Japanese technological finesse to the world.
Since its introduction, Shinkansen has expanded and made significant
technological improvements. Currently, the Shinkansen network is spread over
2600 km and has an annual ridership of over 350 million, with plans of further
expansions to the network.
Shinkansen travels at a maximum speed of 320 km/hr. This roughly
translates to covering a distance of 88 meters in a second. This is whooping
fast. It is around 3 times faster than a conventional car, and 7.5 times faster
than Usain Bolt.
In all, buying bullet trains from Japan ensures that India is getting
the best High-Speed Rail.
Another wow factor of the bullet train is its aerodynamically
designed nose. Just look at it.
1. Fastest mode of transport at optimum distance
The biggest advantage of High-Speed Rail is that it’s fast and reduces
the travel time. But HSR aren’t the fastest mode of transport, that crown is
still held by commercial planes travelling at about 850 km/hr. However, the
total travel time of HSR is lower at short and mid-range distances. The
advantage with HSR is that you travel from city center to city center. While,
planes travel from airports, which are usually away from cities. This leads to
long travel times in taxis to airport, plus additional time in check-in,
boarding, security and waiting for baggage. With bullet trains, you can
directly go to the station and board the train. If travel time is the
biggest factor, the optimal journeys for HSR are with distances of 100–900 km, where
they can beat both planes and cars in total travel time. HSR can also be
competitive with automobiles over shorter distances when your account for
traffic delays.
2. Comfort
Trains are definitely the most comfortable mode of transport. In
attempts to reduce the cost of air travel, carriers have managed to cramp more
passenger in the same plane by reducing legroom and seat width. Consequently,
air travel isn’t comfortable at all, the only solace being shorter travel time.
Cars and buses, pretty much have the same story. Additionally, mad
traffic sense, traffic congestion and bad conditions of roads in India, make
automobile travel very jerky. Not the most comfortable in my book. Since,
trains travel on smooth unobstructed rails, trains have the potential of being
the most comfortable mode of transportation. In terms of space, trains are
still the best. I prefer sleeping on the sleeper coach in comparison to the
seats. Despite the potential, Indian Railways lag behind in cleanliness and
toilet sanitation. But bullets trains should address this issue, and hopefully
provide a vision and motivation for all of Indian Railways to improve.
3. Cost
HSR usually have advantage in price over air tickets. However, if you
expect cost of travel to be close to current price of train travel in India,
you are going to be up for a huge disappointment. The ticket cost for bullet
train is expected to be more than the current rail tickets, but cheaper than air
travel. The cost of air travel is hugely dependent on international cost of jet
fuel. So air travel is expected to increase with rising price of fuel.
Despite the dismal record of Indian Railways, trains are supposed to be most
reliable and safest mode of transport. Trains travel on dedicated tracks, so
ideally there shouldn’t be delays. Indian Railways isn’t reliable because it’s
overloaded, has old rail tracks, and uses old signalling technology which leads
to massive delays in weather condition like fog, rain and cyclones. Japanese
bullet trains have shown that they are reliable. India should be able to match
it with advanced technology in place. Air travels are also more susceptible to
delays caused by weather conditions than trains with advanced signalling
system.
5. Reduced footprint
The overall footprint of trains is much lower than car. HSR rails can
reduce the burden of cars on highways.
6. Energy Efficiency
Train travel is more energy efficient than air travel and automobile.
With the growing concern over carbon emission, HSR running on electricity can
provide huge carbon break.
Ahmedabad-Mumbai route makes lot of sense
Since, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi is from Gujarat and Railway
Minister Suresh Prabhu is from Maharashtra, people have a feeling that this is
reason why Ahmedabad-Mumbai has been chosen as the corridor for first bullet
train in India. This factor would have definitely swung in a favour for
selection of Ahmedabad-Mumbai corridor. Still, if you look at Ahmedabad-Mumbai
route objectively, it makes a lot of sense.
Ahmedabad-Mumbai route is one of the busiest and densely populated rail
route in the country. At a length of around 530 km, this route has the
optimal distance for running a High-Speed Rail.
Also, this route
lies along Mumbai-Delhi route for future expansion. Moreover, connectivity to
Pune can be added in future.
Flat terrain and Easy land acquisition:
The entire route is flat at around sea level, thus reducing the
construction cost. Building an HSR between Mumbai-Pune would have been quite
more expensive per unit km because of the mountainous terrain.
Furthermore, Gujarat has a good track record in swift land acquisition.
Investors don’t want a project to be delayed or stalled due to land acquisition
issues.
Plenty rich travelers:
Along the route lies the huge prosperous middle class population. Mumbai
is the economic capital of India, Ahmedabad is the biggest city in Gujarat,
Surat is the fastest growing city in the country and Vadodara has a huge middle
class population. If there is route in India which will ensure enough travelers willing to pay high cost for bullet train travel, it has to be this route.
Criticism on the cost of project:
The hefty price tag of ₹ 98,000 crores has attracted harsh criticism.
Considering the fact that the total investment by Indian Railways Between 2015–2019
is going to be ₹8, 56,020 crores, and the total expenditure on Ahmedabad-Mumbai
bullet train seems to be out of reach.
However, the major reason why India went ahead with the bullet train
deal is the easy loan deal financed by Japan. According to the deal, Japan will
finance 80 % cost of the project, at just 0.1% interest rate over a 50 year
period after 15 years of moratorium. In simple words, if the loan period begins
in 2017, India will have to only pay ₹2000 crore to Japan from 2032 to 2067.
With the growing economy, India shouldn’t have trouble repaying it.
The loan deal is on the condition that India purchases 30% of the
equipment from Japan. This is a huge advantage, as it will allow India to
manufacture 70% of components in India. Such a massive infrastructure project
will spurn many jobs in the region. Moreover, with technology transfer, India
can save on money and years of research in development of High-Speed Rail. The
ambition will be to not only learn, but also search for ways to reduce the cost
of HSR projects in future. As shown with cheap space exploration mission by
ISRO, India has shown the ability to do this.
The soft financing by Japan makes it a no brainier to invest in bullet
trains.
The easy financing that is will be used to build the bullet train
wouldn’t have been provided for any other purpose, except for buying bullet
trains from Japan. Thus, the question of investing this money for purposes like
improvement of existing rail infrastructure or upgrading to mid-speed rail
instead of HSR don’t arise.
Building for the future
In many ways, it can be argued that Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train
project is more focused for the future. But why this should be held against it.
For years, India has lagged behind on its infrastructure needs. We have looked
at solutions only after we have encountered problems. Why shouldn’t a
developing country aspire to solve its future needs?
By 2030, India will add 20 crore more people to its middle class. These
people will have higher spending capacity, as well as the need for fast
transportation. This huge demand will clog the airports.
Moreover, we shouldn’t follow US model of developing road networks and
neglecting public transport. We should strive to be country where people travel
on its excellent transportation infrastructure.
We should also learn from our history. When Delhi metro was being built,
there were serious questions being asked about the need of undertaking such an
expensive project. However, since its introduction, Delhi has highly utilized
this service. Thus, making Delhi Metro a huge success. Thanks to the leadership
of Mr. Sreedharan, Delhi metro showcased India’s ability to not only undertake
a world class infrastructure project, but also finish it within budget and
time.
