very difficult to build and keep cows and elephants off tracks. as for shitskins on tracks, just run them over and there won't be a derailment.
http://www.livemint.com/Politics/sP...id-to-cost-Indias-Bullet-train-1-billion.html
New Delhi: India may spend as much as $16 billion—over $1 billion more than initially estimated—on the nation’s first bullet train to elevate the entire railroad, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said.
Land acquisition hurdles, as well as people and animals potentially wandering in front of carriages speeding at 350 kilometers (217 miles) an hour, make the option of an elevated link attractive, the person said, asking not to be identified as the plans are private. Construction starts in 2018, the person said.
India is working with Japan to build the 508 kilometer high-speed track from financial capital Mumbai to the economic hub of Ahmedabad in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat. A Japanese-designed Shinkansen train will connect the cities in a project initially estimated to cost Rs.9,800 crore ($14.6 billion), one of India’s biggest infrastructure endeavors.
Modi’s government is keen to elevate the entire railroad—at an extra cost of about Rs.7,800 crore—and operate the train from 2023, the person said. A dozen stations are planned and 2,000 jobs may be created in a project officials expect to spur economic growth, the person said.
A bullet train would help drag the world’s fourth-largest railroad into the 21st century. The network carries about as many passengers daily as Australia’s population, but is both congested and aging, with roots dating back to British colonial rule.
The challenge is to execute the project on time, said Gaurang Shah, vice president at Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services Ltd. Success would help improve the railway’s image, which has been battered by years of losses despite government investments, he said.
A $16 billion outlay would be close to 1% of India’s $2 trillion gross domestic product (GDP), which is already expanding at the fastest pace among major economies. Japan has offered to fund 81% of the initial project cost with a 50-year loan at a 0.1% interest rate.
