Is bullet train costly?

1 lakh crore – total money invested in one train line which connects two important cities of India. Is it a political move or well thought of investment?

How would we evaluate public infrastructure projects? Usually a road or a bridge is made to reduce the travel time so citizens can spend more time in productive activities which eventually increase the GDP.

Now the GDP is increased when the most productive citizens of the country are helped. So a bullet train had to be around the financial capital of the country as that’s where most millionaires are residing. So the bullet train cannot be built only were there are lot of people, however a place where high income population is residing. So in the 500 km radius the maximum tax paying citizens are residing from Ahmedabad to Mumbai.

Another evaluation criteria is the cost per km of the road or the bridge. It is not the total quantum matters as the longer the project, more people benefit. Here are a list of few project with their cost per km and the year in which they were made:

Sr. No.	Name of the Project	Cost per KM	Year of Construction	Present cost (Rough Estimate)
1	Bandra Worli Sea link	285 crore	2010	350 crore
2	Chenani-Nashri Tunnel	400 crore	2017	400 crore
3	Delhi Metro Project	323 crore	2002-2017	400 crore
4	Ahm-Vadodara Express Way	5 crore	2003	75 crore
5	Yamuna Expressway	78 crore	2012	100 crore
6	Eastern Expressway Mumbai	85 crore	2013	120 crore
7	Ahm- Mumbai Bullet Train	200 crore	2023	(To be seen)

If we consider the cost per kilometer of projects as compared with Bullet train – it is cheaper than comparable projects. Only the highway projects are cheaper than bullet train however such projects take years to complete because of complex land acquisition and its hidden costs.

It is also to be seen how much time does a project save per crore invested. Looking at the speed of the bullet train, which is the fastest than any such project it is going to save maximum time. In fact the total travel time will be lesser than air travel which is going to help a lot to increase the GDP.

Another important part of bullet train is environment friendly travel. While airport and highway will need crude oil to travel and emit green house gases – a bullet train will consume electricity which can be from renewable sources.

If we consider scalability than also the train track once laid can have a lot of trains – about one going every 10 mins. While highways / airports get crowded very easily and are not scalable to 10 times their present capacity.

Highways have a high fatality rate with 14 lakh road deaths in India annually it is a big risk. Shinkansen technology having zero fatalities in last 50 years may be the solution to Indian traveler woes.