Modi, Abe bonhomie on display as they kick-off bullet train project

For the ambitious project, Japan is offering a $12-bn loan at 0.1% interest for a 50-yr period

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe promised to travel to Ahmedabad from Mumbai in 2022 in the bullet train, for which they laid the foundation stone on Thursday.

The event was hosted at the Sabarmati athletic grounds. Modi and Abe said the 508-km-long Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail (MAHSR), to be built at a cost of Rs 1.08 lakh crore ($17 billion), would do for the Indian economy what the Shinkansen bullet train did for Japan after its launch in 1964.

“I loved the thrilling roadshow yesterday (Wednesday),” said Abe, who, along with wife Akie, had accompanied Modi,