Abe takes Modi out on a bullet train ride during Japan visit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe on Saturday travelled in Japan's famed high-speed Shinkansen bullet train, which is being introduced in India on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad stretch.

Modi and Abe travelled in the train, whose speed ranges from 240 kms per hour to 320 kms per hour, from Tokyo to Kobe, a city on Osaka Bay in Japan.

"On the way to Kobe with PM @AbeShinzo. We are on board the Shinkansen bullet train," Prime Minister Modi tweeted along with pictures of him in deep conversation with Abe.

"A unique friendship on a unique train journey. PM @narendramodi and PM @AbeShinzo inside the Shinkansen bullet train to Kobe," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted.

The construction of the high-speed train corridor between Mumbai and Ahmedabad will start in 2018 and the train service will be operational from 2023.

Abe, at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Modi in Tokyo on Friday, had said that the designing of the project will begin by the end of this year.

He said the ambitious project "symbolises a new dimension in the special relations" between the two countries and hoped that introduction of the rapid train network will spur further economic growth in India. The high speed rail system 'Shinkansen' was introduced in Japan in 1964.

Modi was also taken on a tour of Kawasaki Heavy Industries factory in Kobe by the Japanese premier.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi sits on pilot seat of a bullet train as his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe and Kawasaki Heavy Industries President, Yoshinori Kanehana (R) look on during his visit to Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) Hyogo Plant.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe at Kawasaki Heavy Industries' (KHI) Hyogo plant in Kobe.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe before travel by Shinkansen bullet train to Kobe from Tokyo Station in Japan.