Japan and India are working on a bullet - shaped train at staggering speeds (Photo)

The colonial-era railway system in India is preparing to take a major step forward, as the Indian prime minister is working on a project to run a lead-shaped train, the Guardian” reported, broadcast Periscopi.

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation for the high-speed line Thursday during a visit by his Japanese counterpart, Shinzı Abe, in the western state of Gujarati.

“This is new India and the flight of its dreams is endless”, Mode said at the ceremony

Open the new railway line. “The lead-shaped train project will bring”.

The high-speed line, which the Indian government aims to begin on the 75th anniversary of India's independence in particular on 15 August 2022, will be headed by Ahmedabad, the capital of Guyarat, in Mumbai's financial centre.

Indian officials say the train will have a maximum speed of 217 miles per hour (350km / h), more than double the speed of the country's fastest train, which runs from Delhi capital to Agra with a slow maximum of 100 miles per hour.

The Shinkansen model train will cut the 316km journey from Ahmedabad to Mumbai from eight hours to three.

More than four fifths of the cost of the 19 billion project (14.4 billion pounds) will be financed by a loan rate of 0.1% interest from Japan, as part of a deeper economic relationship the two countries hope will act as a fortress against Chinese influence in Asia.

“Japania has shown that it is a true friend of India”, Modi said on Thursday.

This project will reportedly create about 36,000 jobs.

Trains are still the preferred choice of long - distance travel for most Indians, but the number of passengers, especially in the most expensive places, have begun to decrease since 2014.

India's train network, built during British colonial rule, is the oldest and longest of Asia in the world, covering more than 67,000 miles [67,000 km]./Periscopi/