The project, declared in a joint statement between India and Japan, will link Mumbai in Maharashtra with Ahmedabad in Gujarat, incurring an estimated cost of about $15 billion, and expected to start in 2017 and completed in six years.
Reportedly, the MOUs signed between the two nations sought to leverage the friendship that morphed partly over a mutual desire to counter China’s growing influence as an economic and military powerhouse.
The news of high-speed bullet train is definitely a euphoric moment for international corporates, local contractors, and a small fraction of aspirational elites aspiring for luxury travel.
In contrast, the decision is a mockery of badly-needed reforms in social infrastructure, health, and education. Already, hope for improvement in sectors such as drinking water, sanitation, women and child development, and other social schemes suffered a hit due to BJP government’s decision to reduce spending on these sectors.
Time to remind ourselves once again that India accommodates a quarter of the world’s undernourished population, over a third of the world’s underweight children, and almost a third of the world’s food-insecure people.
Perhaps there was greater hope relied by encouraged citizens who voted the present government to think more about areas such as education, healthcare and immunization. Reportedly India has been doing poorly in public health and education, compared to the GDP than countries which have had efficacious health transition and educational transformation.
Given India’s poor performance in health and education sectors, many Indians are already questioning the feasibility and sagacity of a “showpiece project” at the expense of an overall reduced education and public-health budget.
According to Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen, “Every developing county aspires high and continuous growth. India is the only country in the world which is trying to become a global economic power with an uneducated and unhealthy labor force.”
For those euphoric about the economic benefits promised by bullet trains, it’s about time to assess the cost, ridership privileges, estimated cost of tickets, and the project’s overall viability in propelling India’s economy.
It is pertinent to remind ourselves that a major chunk of India’s population travel in cheaper, second-class trains. Will the bullet trains bring anything different for these billions of passengers who use India’s rail network yearly?
Unlikely, because fares will evidently match with the Rajdhani trains — a prospect for a privileged few in India. Perhaps it would have been wiser to upgrade the existing railway networks and improve the facilities in existing trains.
In my opinion, India needs quicker, efficient, hygienic mass-transport systems before thinking about luxurious, rapid transport. The priority should have been making the existing trains to travel at higher speeds, and provide safe, affordable comfort for billions of middle-class Indians.
Noting the euphoric developments, Sundanda K Datta-Ray wrote in Business Standard, “Modi’s loyalty to his home state, Gujarat, is admirable but an Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train will not begin to address any of the many problems Indian Railways faces.”
Following similar line of thought, an Op-Ed article in the Times of India says, “There is nothing intrinsically wrong in a bullet train, but given the priorities outlined in the recent railway budget, there is no case to borrow money to build a showpiece project at this moment in time.”
