Japan offers soft loan for India's US$15b high-speed train

New Delhi

JAPAN has offered to finance India's first bullet train, estimated to cost US$15 billion, at an interest rate of less than one per cent, officials said, stealing a march on China, which is bidding for other projects on the world's fourth-largest network.

Tokyo was picked to assess the feasibility of building the 505-kilometre corridor linking Mumbai with Ahmedabad, the commercial capital of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state. The Japanese survey concluded the project would be technically and financially viable.