The relevance of India’s 164-year-old rail network can only be summed up by the age-old notion, if you want to see the country unfold before you, travel by train, as Mahatma Gandhi did.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 14 ushered the country’s railway network into a new age by unveiling the beginning of construction for India’s first bullet train along with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the Mumbai–Ahmedabad high-speed rail corridor.

The two prime ministers also laid the foundation stone for an institute that will come up at Vadodara, where around 4,000 people will be trained for the bullet train project.

Anointed as the PM’s dream project, the venture estimated to be worth Rs 1.1 lakh crore (approximately 19 billion dollars) is bound to begin operations in 2022 with as many as 35 bullet trains plying on the 509-kilometre stretch between Mumbai and Ahmedabad. Indian railways officials have stated that each commute will reduce the original travel time of seven hours by four hours.

With as many as 70 trips per day, bullet trains running at a maximum speed of 217mph (350km/h) are bound to boost traffic on the Mumbai–Ahmedabad high-speed rail corridor with a ticket costing approximately Rs 3,000. It has also been addressed that the project will create almost 40,000 new jobs.

Based on the Japan’s indigenous Shinkansen rail system, the bullet train project is a giant leap for the Indo-Japan economic partnership with Japan providing 85 percent of the cost of the new train link in soft loans.

How much will the bullet trains cost India?

Japan's loan of almost Rs. 88,000 crores at a minimal interest rate of 0.1% has to be repaid in over 50 years. Repayment will begin only after 15 years. The first tranche of the loan, Rs. 6,000 crore, will be released immediately, while the remaining tranches will come after the completion of land acquisition.

However, the magnitude and timing of the venture has come under scrutiny by economists and think tank policy-makers.

Economists have questioned whether the project worth Rs. 1.1 lakh crore will be viable by the time the loan is paid off in the 50 years granted by Japan.

In addition to this, the recent slew of derailments on both short and long railway routes and the appalling number of deaths due to overcrowding at local railway networks such as the Western Railways-run Mumbai local trains, brings to mind the following question.

Should we first concentrate on fixing our existing rail network?

As per reports, at the time of the inauguration ceremony, the country has witnessed the derailment of five trains in the past 75 days that has led to a death toll of 193 commuters.

The Government of India’s policy think-tank, the NITI Aayog earlier said in a report that the Railway timetable should be reworked to ensure that workmen get enough time for daily safety checks of rail tracks.

Citing data, the report said over the six-year period (2012-13 to 2016-17), and the country's rail network saw a total of 586 accidents. “These accidents led to 1,011 casualties and left 1,634 people injured,” it said.

Mumbai's casualty ridden lifeline needs urgent attention

Shifting focus to the public mode of transport that is rightly dubbed as the lifeline of India’s Millenium city, the Mumbai local train network, as per an RTI, almost 2,500 people fall from the Mumbai Local every year, out of which 880 die on an annual basis.

Reports have indicated that on an average, 7 people die every single day because they get hit by a pole while travelling via a local train in Mumbai.

Almost unbelievable overcrowding at the Mumbai local train had led to the death of 3200 people in 2016 in addition to 5000 passengers getting injured. An activist pointed out that the Mumbai suburban train has a seating capacity of around 1200 passengers; however, during peak hours it accommodates more than 6000 passengers.

The Andheri-Virar section, where the crowding is fatal, has claimed 439 lives in 2017, other than injuring another 425 people who slipped out of over packed trains. The entire line, from Churchgate to Dahanu, saw more than 1,400 casualties due to overcrowding.

On an average, as many as 2.9 lakh commuters board at Borivali alone, followed by 2.6 lakh at Andheri. The numbers of passengers boarding at stations falling on the way to Virar range from 1.7 lakh to 2.02 lakh, apart from those already on board.

The bullet train project has the ability to grant India a seat at the big boys' table and is a giant leap for the country’s infrastructural sphere. That being said, the Prime Minister should consider diverting his attention now to improving the health of the squeaking Indian railway network.