Today at 3:30 P.M., Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will be landing in Gujarat and will be welcomed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Japanese Prime Minister is in India for just two days and the two heads will be discussing India’s first bullet train from Mumbai to Ahmedabad with financial assistance from Japan.
The arrival will be a grand affair as hundreds of people will be lined up on the 9 km stretch from the airport as children will be heard singing and seen dancing on 28 stages set up every few hundred meters.
The government has assigned 9,000 policemen as security across the twin cities.
Prime Minister Modi will take the Japanese dignitary to ‘Sidi Saiyyid Ni Jaali’ which is a 16th century mosque that was built with yellow sandstone. The mosque located in Eastern Ahmedabad will be visited by the two heads and Modi will reflect back on the rich heritage and architecture of the mosque.
Tomorrow will be the big highlight of the Japanese Prime Minister’s visit as a public function will be conducted to mark the beginning of construction of India’s first bullet train.
The bullet train will stretch out 508 km and is estimated to cost around Rs. 1,10,000 crores. The train will be ready sometime between 2022 and 2023.
The Japanese will be loaning India Rs. 88,000 crores for the construction with just a 0.1% rate of interest. Railway Minister Piyush Goyal reported that India will be given 50 years to repay the loan with 15 years as a grace period.
Out of the 508 km stretch, 468 km will be elevated while 27 km will be built through a tunnel and the remaining 13 km will be on the ground. The tracks will be built through the longest tunnel in the country of 21 km and 7 km of that will be under water.
