NEW DELHI • India’s first bullet train project, in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state, will break ground tomorrow to coincide with a visit by his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe..
NEW DELHI • India’s first bullet train project, in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state, will break ground tomorrow to coincide with a visit by his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe.
Mr Abe will lay the foundation stone for the project, in a tightening of ties just days after New Delhi ended a dangerous military confrontation with China.
The move by Mr Abe, who starts a two-day visit to India today, highlights an early lead for Japan in a sector where the Chinese have also been trying to secure a foothold, but without much success.
Mr Modi has made the 500km-long high-speed rail link between the financial hub of Mumbai and the industrial city of Ahmedabad in western Gujarat a centrepiece of his efforts to showcase India’s ability to build cutting-edge infrastructure.
The leaders will launch the start of work on the line tomorrow, India’s Railways Ministry said in a statement. “This technology will revolutionise and transform the transport sector, ” said Railways Minister Piyush Goyal, welcoming the prospects for growth brought about by Japan’s high-speed “shinkansen”, or bullet train, technology.
In Tokyo, a Japanese Foreign Ministry official told reporters that Japan “would like to support ‘Make in India’ as much as possible”, referring to Mr Modi’s signature policy to lure investors in manufacturing.
