India and Japan may forge a partnership for manufacturing the next generation E10 Shinkansen bullet trains in India, with an announcement likely during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s two-day visit to Japan this week, people familiar with the matter said.
The collaboration will further strengthen India-Japan economic cooperation, and the two partners have agreed in principle on the joint manufacturing of the E10 Shinkansen, which is derived from the ALFA-X experimental train, the people said requesting anonymity.
The move will bolster the ongoing collaboration between the two countries on the Ahmedabad-Mumbai high speed railway project, which has a total length of 508 km.
“The project is in line with the success of the Maruti Suzuki joint venture that happened about four decades ago, but its scale and strategic importance is immense,” one of the people said, asking not to be named. “This is an outcome of PM Modi’s vision and his friendship with Japan. The collaboration between the two partners has been scaled up from procuring bullet trains to jointly building them in India.”
The version of the E10 Shinkansen to be provided to India will be specially modified for the country’s conditions, a second person said. Despite several delays and cost overruns to the Ahmedabad-Mumbai high speed railway project, Japan remains committed to the initiative, he said.
Modi is set to reach Tokyo on August 29 for an annual summit with Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and will also participate in a business forum. On the following day, the two PMs will travel to Sendai city on the Shinkansen, or bullet train, to visit a semiconductor facility and meet governors of Japan’s prefectures,
The trip by the two PMs in the Shinkansen also reflects Japan’s commitment to India’s planned bullet train service, the second person said. The E10 Shinkansen project is expected to be part of a new transport-mobility partnership to be unveiled by the two sides.
A spokesperson for the Prime Minister’s Office didn’t respond to an email query on this matter.
Earlier, Tokyo agreed to the simultaneous launch of the latest version of the E10 Shinkansen in India and Japan, as reported by HT in January. India was previously expected to get an older version, the E5 Shinkansen, but Modi’s keen interest in the project and his excellent rapport with the Japanese leadership saw a “very positive outcome”, the people said.
Manufacturing the bullet trains in India will be a win-win, as it will cater to India’s massively growing transportation needs and the train could also be supplied to third countries. India’s cost-effective manufacturing facilities and Japanese technology, with its flawless quality controls, make it an apt project of excellence, the first person said.
The E5 Shinkansen’s maximum speed is 320 kmph, while the E10 Shinkansen, which is still undergoing trials in Japan, can run at a top speed of 400 kmph. The ALFA-X has been operated as a test bed for new technologies that will be used in the E10 Shinkansen, which is expected to enter service in 2030.
Referring to the work done so far on the Ahmedabad-Mumbai high speed railway project, the second person said the first 50km of the project in Gujarat is expected to become operational in 2027, and the remainder by 2029.
Both people cited above said safety remains the primary concern for the Japanese side, especially given the Shinkansen’s record of no accidents resulting in fatalities or injuries of passengers on board since operations commenced in 1964.