Bullet train logo finalised: NID student's Cheetah will be face of PM Modi's high-speed train project

Bullet train logo has been designed and it's: cheetah. A student of the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad has designed the logo for India's high-speed rail network, the Indian Express reported. A senior Railways official said the logo was selected from a contest by a three-member screening committee headed by renowned painter and architect Satish Gujral.

"The contest received an overwhelming response from across the country. The dates for submitting the applications were between April 19 and May 18, and around 100 entries were received by the committee from various states," the report quoted an official as saying. The cheetah represents speed, while the red and blue lines symbolise calm and reliability, the report further said. Three entries were shortlisted after initial screening. The top entry was selected from NID in Ahmedabad, the second from the School of Planning and Architecture in Delhi, and the third from the NID in Bengaluru.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe laid the foundation stone for India's first high-speed rail network project in Gujarat on September 14. The first bullet train will run between Ahmedabad and Mumbai. This Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail or MAHSR is a 508 KM long corridor that will pass through Sabarmati, Anand, Vadodara, Bharuch, Surat, Bilimora, Vapi, Boisar, Virar and Thane. The project is expected to be completed by 2022. The MAHSR project is a joint venture between Indian Railways and Japan's Shinkansen Technology.

Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad recently put out a study, saying that the bullet train from Mumbai-Ahmedabad can eventually be extended to Jaipur and Delhi. The study said that the Mumbai-Ahmedabad corridor was a good choice for the first route as it connects the country's first and seventh most populous cities with significant economic development in the 500 km corridor between them. "In terms of future network growth, this segment can be part of further extension to Jaipur and Delhi," the study said.

5 historical, engineering facts you need to know about Japan's prestigious bullet trains

• The first bullet train was inaugurated in Japan in the year 1964. The train, known as Shinkansen, ran from Tokyo to Osaka. It could run upto 320 km per hour. However, a few years before Shinkansen was inaugurated in Japan, Emile Bachelet of New York demonstrated a prototype of what was to become a magnetic levitating car.
• Subsequently, a series of German patents were awarded to Hermann Kemper for his idea of magnetic levitating trains. The first commercial magnetic levitating car, what was to become one of the earliest versions of Maglev, ran in Birmingham from 1984-95 between the international airport and the international railway station.  
• The idea behind the Maglev or Magnetic Levitation is very simple. It functions on the basic principle of magnetic repulsion, where opposite poles attract and similar poles repel. This governs the functioning of the Maglev that levitates around 10 mm from the guiding track.
• Although a lot of countries have high-speed trains, not all of them are bullet trains. According to reports on the Guardian and the Washington Post, fewer than 15 countries had high-speed trains as of 2009.
• As of now, the fastest train is the Japanese maglev L0 series that can speed up to 603 km/h. According to India Today, the TR-09 in Germany and the Shanghai Maglev in China are the second and third swiftest trains that can run upto a speed of 500 km and 430 km per hour respectively.