‘No proposal on paper of bullet train at BKC’

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has claimed that there is no concrete proposal on paper from the Railway Board for construction of proposed Mumbai-Ahmedabad underground bullet train at Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC). MMRDA has maintained its stand of being unwilling to give land for the bullet train station.

“We simply do not understand that if the Railway wants to construct the bullet train terminal at BKC, what is stopping them from sending us a formal proposal for the same There have always been informal talks where they have asked us and we have denied giving land in BKC. It has to follow a process of sending a formal proposal rather than just making statements,” said a senior MMRDA official.

For months, there has been an exchange of letters between state officials, the railway ministry and officials of the Railway Board and all parties have exchanged their opinion on having an underground bullet train at BKC.

A MMRDA official privy to the meeting said, “In the meeting held between the chief minister and railway minister Suresh Prabhu, the state government maintained its stand of not giving land at BKC for the bullet train. Mr Fadnavis suggested that Mr Prabhu explore land owned by the Railways in Bandra.”

The official said that they had made it clear that MMRDA had plans to erect a structure of International Finance Service Centre (IFSC) on the very same plot of land which the Railway wanted for the terminal and technically, it wasn’t feasible for an underground terminal and IFSC above to coexist. The very basic need of IFSC would be parking and they planned to have minus three levels of parking under IFSC. If there was a bullet train station, it would not be conducive for their IFSC planning.

MMRDA officials also said that they did not understand why the Railways was so persistent about BKC when they had three other options i.e. Bandra, Kurla and Dadar.

Pegged at Rs 98,000 crore, top speed of the bullet train will be 300 to 350 kmph. Japan is to give 81 per cent funds via loan. The bullet train will start at BKC, according to the initial proposal.