NEW DELHI: Ahead of the ground breaking ceremony of the country’s first bullet train project , railways minister Piyush Goyal said the Ahmedabad-Mumbai high speed rail project is being financed at a historically low debt cost, with technology which will transform and revolutionize the country’s rail network.The minister said the construction of the high-speed train corridor will boost employment as it will provide 4,000 directs jobs for running the system and generate 20,000 indirect jobs in construction.As the government mulls moving the deadline forward for completion of the project from March 2023 to August 15, 2022 when the country celebrates its 75th year of independence, Goyal said, keeping in mind the speed with which the government has implemented all projects he is confident that this project too will be completed before deadline.The estimated cost of the project is pegged at Rs 1.08 lakh crore. Major portion of the project is financed by debt as Japan has agreed to give a soft loan of about Rs 88,000 crore at an interest rate of 0.1%. The repayment period of the loan is 50 years.“Repayment of loan is to begin after 15 years of receiving the loan, making it practically free since, this loan interest works out to roughly Rs 7-8 crore per month,” said a railway statement.Goyal said, “The cost will go down further as the technology will grow massively and it will be developed under Make in India.”The opposition-led by Congress has attacked the Modi dispensation over the plan to execute the capital intensive bullet train project when the existing railway network is suffering due to underinvestment.The opposition has rejected the project, questioning what is Modi government’s ‘real priorities’--bullet trains or ensuing safe drinking water, sanitation and housing for all.Stating that India kept running railways on technologies that were discarded by other developed countries years ago, Goyal said introduction of bullet trains will revolutionise the country’s outdated railway system.He said the bullet train would have the same impact on India’s transport technology as Maruti had on automobile sector 30 years ago.“Shinkansen technology will transform India's transportation in the future. It has been a zero accident train in Japan and I am sure the track record will remain the same in India,” he said.Commenting on speculations that bullet train would be expensive, Goyal said, “We will certainly keep it affordable. Competition will find its way.”“This would be a historical moment as India will get its first bullet train. It was envisioned by PM Narendra Modi to take railways towards most modern technologies like developed countries,” Goyal said.