Team-BHP (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)

-   Commercial Vehicles (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/commercial-vehicles/)

-   -   Bullet Train in India - What it means for the country? (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/commercial-vehicles/190365-bullet-train-india-what-means-country-6.html)

Agree to this. Basic infrastructure at stations, relaying old tracks, revamping the age old signalling systems, doubling of high traffic routes should take priority than this fancy 1L Crore project on which travel can be afforded only by the upper mid class to rich. The basic ticket cost would be 3.5k + I guess.

In my town, the busiest stations do not even have a full roof to the length of platform + very high density route due to lack of double lines. Trains go at 40kms on some stretches due to track issues.

I paid 3.5K for a premium tatkal ticket due to emergency to travel in a decade old rat infested AC compartment with soiled blankets.

All looks good on paper but I feel a lot more can be done with this 1L crore than this train.
My personal opinion

Where is the revenue in making the roads better? You lose revenue. Good roads or bad you will still go to work everyday, and people will still relocate to Mumbai. It's the business capital after all. And this is a perennial problem in any major city of India, not just Mumbai. Even though road tax collection is huge, it never translates to tarmac.

Ventures like this will not only show the country as advanced, despite the condition of roads within the city, and additionally bring in revenue.

My concern is more with if the country is ready for this. With the experience with Tejas Express, etc, personally I am still skeptical.

To all those complaining about the basic infrastructure, poverty and all the others woes, please ponder over these points:

Japan is a developed country and we are a developing nation. There is a big difference. They had the edge in technology over many countries way back before ww1. Where as we have been slaves under the Brits from 1757 to 1947. Thats close to 200 years. Our glorious economy was sucked out dry by the invaders over the years. When the Brits left we were had huge country to ourselves left in ruins and we had to literally start from scratch. Its common in such developing countries that people suffer from lack of infrastructure. But try to think where we were when we started and where we are today. It has been an upward graph. Surely there is corruption. Surely there is poverty. Surely there are diseases, bad infrastructure, population, etc. But think how much we have grown over these years. And if we were to fix only our problems and not think in parallel about technological advancements then our growth would be much less. Elimination of current problems and advancement of the nation should go in parallel. One should not stop for the other. If things go in parallel we as a country have the might to overtake what the developed nations of the world are.

Some people only complain, and I would really love to know how much honest have they been when it comes to maybe picking up a simple chocolate wrapper from the street and throwing it in the nearest bin? How much honest have they been in filing the income taxes? How much honest have they been in all the basic things we do in our day to day lives that can be compared with those living in developed countries? Always remember charity begins at home.

I certainty don't find it stupid, and rather commend the fact that after so many years of just blabbering and false commitments the bullet train project is actually kicking off. Its one more feather to the cap of India along side the space projects and scientific advancements. For everything new thing there is a start. And this is the start to our Bullet train venture. So lets be proud about the employment, the growth, the advancement, the all the other benefits it is going to bring to us.

Beg to differ Sir,

Fact of the Matter is it is Japan's Money, which he wanted to invest in India for some returns to them as well. We cannot dictate our terms & have instead have found ways to have benefits of our own in this project. Learning & upgrading ourselves over the years is best one.

The other concerns of why not improving existing: Is immaculately explained by Nav-i-Gator in the post immediate to yours. No Home loan for Renewals, but a plenty to buy a new one.

NOM

Regards,
Saurabh

Maharashtra CM says if the state waives of all of its farmers loan by paying 30,000 cr then the state will lead to financial chaos. Now I am wondering, by paying the same amount for the bullet train so happily, whether the state will become a financial heaven. :Frustrati

We need to get our priorities sorted out. please:

Well, it may sound like I am supporting the current govt and taking sides, but the truth is govt is prioritizing the railways a lot in the last 3 years. But you need to remember that the negligence for decades cannot be overcome in a fortnight. Here are the govt spending on railways in the last few years:

1. Expenditure on railway safety in 2013-14 is Rs. 33,972 crores. It's increased to Rs 54,031 crores in 2016-17 (60% increase in just 3 years).

2. Most of the accidents happen due to unmanned level crossings and Indian Railways has eliminated a record 3,904 unmanned crossings in just 3 years. Remaining 6,300 will be eliminated by 2020.

3. Most of the derailments due to over saturated traffic in key routes. Most of the routes are handling 1.5 times of their capacity. To ease the traffic railways is spending lot of money in the last 3 years to tripling and quadraple the busy routes and DFC for freight.

4. Rs 4 lakh crore spent on infrastructure in just 3 years while the amount spent before that since independence is Rs 4.9 lakh crores.

5. Only 16,000 KM of route is doubled in 67 years while doubling of more than 14,000 KM route has been in the last 2 years. This will be completed by 2019.

I can confirm that in Andhra Pradesh alone there are many new routes that have been pending for decades are sanctioned and in different stages of construction.

@Nav-i-gator & saurabh2711 I fully endorse your point of view but nonetheless reiterating again the issue is that instead of spending money on some new super expensive project won't it be prudent on the government's part to start spending on up gradation of existing railway infrastructure. And for that the government need not rely on loans from abroad as its coffers are being filled at an unprecedented rate with enormous revenue being generated from the sale of petrol and diesel at prices which are way higher than the international crude oil price. Even the Finance Minister has justified the higher fuel price rates on the grounds that the revenue generated will be used in infrastructure development and the most eligible contender for that spending is none other than the railways.

Regards

Absolutely there are numerous issues plaguing the railways and the priority should be to look into these before going in for anything new.

Regards

Couldn't agree more. Definitely a lot of turn around has taken place in the railways with the new government at the center. But then won't it be better if the government completely focuses and channelizes its entire efforts in continuing with the turn around rather than experiment with a project which would benefit only a handful of elite class passengers.

Regards

While I'm very happy and equally excited to see bullet train coming (finally) to our country, I just hope and pray to God that it doesn't meet the same fate as that poor Tejas Express had to see. 2017 year saw advent of high speed train services in India equipped with LED screens, WiFi, USB charging ports, coffee vending machines and bio toilets. But unfortunately, as with all good things put in public space in our country, the Tejas Express was severely mishandled in her maiden voyage and had broken windows, cracked LED screens, dirty toilets, stolen earphones and what not. And mind you, these folks were from well off background and normally like to call themselves "educated" but what they did was an International embarrassment. It broke many hearts but not for the first time for sure. India has this glorious history of messing up all the good things because its new and good looking. Public property being abused, shiny coat of paan thook on a newly painted wall etc are just a few examples of our well educated and civilised junta who just doesn't deserve good things IMHO! Not now for sure. Not that I don't want to see people getting benefits of good infrastructure/facilities but I have some serious doubts over the morality and civil manners of our countrymen and wish we could a little better than what majority of us do.

So my 2 cents is to make sure enough vigilance and accountability are in place to ensure the public behaves the way they are supposed to and respect the time, resources and hard work being put in to build that train. Anyone found abusing or destroying public property (not just one bullet train) should be dealt with severe punishment and hefty fines. Set some harsh examples for others. Restructuring elementary education and creating awareness (and please, no lame slogans and jumle which seem to be in fashion these days) would play a vital role in long run in making people understand the importance of being civil and respectful.

The term "glorious" does not seem to be empirically stated. It must have been glorious, if we take natural resources etc. But that does not mean that the economy was not owned and controlled by a few, before the British.

In order to suck out the economy dry, you need not necessarily look for invaders :)

There is always the question, "show the country as advanced" to whom? And for what purpose?

Don't we have to convince ourselves that we have an efficient and affordable travel facility that is also feasible for majority of people for whom travel is everyday reality and not luxury? Do we develop the economy primarily to show to outsiders or to equip ourselves with feasible transport?

My thought goes in this way.

The pace of our fast trains such as the Rajdhanis and Shatabdis comes by slowing down the pace of the common-man's trains.

The bullet train escapes this charge though, because of the special high speed corridor that will be constructed for its run. Yet, the common-man's trains are in an extremely bad shape. It needs more investment. Just as large economies invested in power sector etc in India, this too can be made possible if the government wants. Just see how the UP and Bihar bound trains leave Delhi. How overcrowded do they start everyday!

The bullet train will get materialised and run soon too. Still, these concerns will also remain.

Absolute spot on assessment sir.agree: You have very well pointed out that the need of the hour is to change the mentality of the masses so that they can start treating public property with utmost care and respect. Also there is a dire need to change the work culture in the railways before high technology driven bullet trains are introduced because money can for sure buy technology but it can't change the mindset of the employees who have extremely casual approach towards their work as is quite evident from the recent fatal train mishap near Muzaffarnagar, wherein the train derailed due to negligence on the part of track maintenance staff who let the train pass over half assembled track. This kind of criminal negligence can prove to be catastrophic in case of high speed bullet trains.

Regards

This train is going to benefit lot of people who commute between Mumbai/Surat/Baroda/Ahmadabad and also those who fly abroad regularly.

Station being at BKC is also quite nearby Airport.
Location is also strategic since Kurla Terminus and Dadar are not too far.

It is an exciting time for Indian railways, and we should hope the tech flow benefits our other services.

If this becomes popular, we bhpians should also rejoice as we will see lesser traffic on NH8.

First things first
1. We need it
2. We are getting it
3. It's going to be successful.

So the debate about spending money somewhere else etc is out of question, government must have analysed pros and cons before finalising it. There are well qualified engineers, railway people and economists sitting in Delhi who would have given their opinion for this. I want to stay out of debate, but want to share one thing which I remember.

When Vajpeyi Saab was at the helm of this country, I read a newspaper article stating that Ahm- Mum route is being considered for bullet train. It was a small article in a Hindi newspaper. I must have been 13-14 years young then, believe me I was very excited that our country will have bullet trains now. Going by that newspaper article, we are already 15 years late.

Request: If anyone remembers such an article and remembers some details from it, please share.

Note: My father and myself are associated with Congress, I'll refrain myself from any debates. Thank You.

Agreed.

Oh my god, didn't know about this :Shockked:. Just fail to understand how we are so casual and irresponsible towards safety of others. Some radical changes in our society is needed. People need to be taught how to be respectful and considerate, then only such big schemes would see success in our country. And yes, I support the argument which many fellow members have put in that rather than investing so much time and resources in one project when we dont have basic infrastructure in place, priority should be given to better the existing lot. Plus with majority of us being uncivilised and ill-mannered doesn't really give any confidence of being ready for such advancement, unless some corrective measures are to be taken by the government, which doesn't seem to be happening soon since they are least bothered with it.

That's exactly what I said! It's not a zero sum game, where investing in bullet trains = no spending in IR infra improvement.Both can, and should, go hand in hand. One financed through a loan from Japan on a highly favorable term and the other through our own pockets.

All infrastructure development eventually pays off. When the British built the local trains in Bombay, it was to cater to a target population of 1 million. Bombay's population was much lesser - but currently the same network with additions caters to over 20 million people.

I am not sure, but I understand the deal involved transfer of technology which would make it handy to build bullet trains in the future as well.

My pet peeve is the tobacco stains. It is high time India just ban whatever it is that people consume that makes them spit everywhere - from trains to tennis courts. This filthy habit cuts across social and economic strata. Here is hoping that by 2022 even if the train is not ready, at least these products are banned.