PM Modi, Shinzo Abe lay foundation stone for bullet train project

Agencies

September 14, 2017

Ahmedabad, Sep 14: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe today laid the foundation stone for India's first bullet train between Ahmedabad and Mumbai.

On the occasion, Abe said the Indo-Japan partnership is special, strategic and global.

"A strong India is in Japan's interest and a strong Japan is in India's interest," Abe said after laying the foundation stone of the project at a ground at Sabarmati in Ahmedabad.

"My good friend Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a far-sighted leader. He took a decision two years ago to bring high-speed train in India and to create a new India," he said.

"I hope to enjoy the beautiful scenery of India through the windows of the bullet train when I come back here in a few years," Abe said.

The Rs 1.10 lakh crore train project between Ahmedabad and Mumbai is expected to be completed by 2022. The train would cover the distance of over 500 km in around two hours.

Japan has extended a soft loan for the ambitious project conceptualised by Modi.

The project is a joint venture between Indian Railways and Japan's Shinkansen Technology.

The prime ministers of the two countries also laid the foundation stone for an institute that will come up at Vadodara where around 4,000 people will be trained for the bullet train project.

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and his Maharashtra counterpart Devendra Fadnavis were present on the occasion.

Updates:

Bullet train is a big gift from Japan to India: PM Modi

When earlier I talked about bullet train, they (oppn) used to say it was big talk, and now when it has come they are saying what is the need for it: Modi.

Japan is such a friend that it gave a loan of Rs 88,000 crore at 0.1 per cent interest: Modi.

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IndiGo CEO says less than 1,000 cancellations on Dec 6; normalcy by Dec 15

News Network

December 5,2025

New Delhi, Dec 5: IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers issued a public apology this evening after more than a thousand flights were cancelled today, making it the "most severely impacted day" in terms of cancellations. The biggest airline of the country cancelled "more than half" of its daily number of flights on Friday, said Elbers. He also said that even though the crisis will persist on Saturday, the airline anticipates fewer than 1,000 flight cancellations.

"Full normalisation is expected between December 10 and 15, though IndiGo cautions that recovery will take time due to the scale of operations," the IndiGo CEO said.

IndiGo operates around 2,300 domestic and international flights daily.

Pieter Elbers, while apologising for the major inconvenience due to delays and cancellations, said the situation is a result of various causes.

The crisis at IndiGo stems from new regulations that boost pilots' weekly rest requirements by 12 hours to 48 and allow only two night-time landings per week, down from six. IndiGo has attributed the mass cancellations to "misjudgment and planning gaps".

Elbers also listed three lines of action that the airline will adopt to address the issue.

"Firstly, customer communication and addressing your needs, for this, messages have been sent on social media. And just now, a more detailed communication with information, refunds, cancellations and other customer support measures was sent," he said.

The airline has also stepped up its call centre capacity.

"Secondly, due to yesterday's situation, we had customers stranded mostly at the nation's largest airports. Our focus was for all of them to be able to travel today itself, which will be achieved. For this, we also ask customers whose flights are cancelled not to come to the airports as notifications are sent," the CEO said.

"Thirdly, cancellations were made for today to align our crew and planes to be where they need to start tomorrow morning afresh. Earlier measures of the last few days, regrettable, have proven not to be enough, but we have decided today to reboot all our systems and schedules, resulting in the highest numbers of cancellations so far, but imperative for progressive improvements starting from tomorrow," he added.

As airports witnessed chaotic scenes, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) stepped in to grant IndiGo a temporary exemption from stricter night duty rules for pilots. It also allowed substitution of leaves with a weekly rest period.

Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu has said a high-level inquiry will be ordered and accountability will be fixed.

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