New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to lay the foundation stone for commencement of work of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train corridor project in September in the presence of Japanese Premier Shinzo Abe.
The high-speed train between Mumbai and Ahmedabad is being constructed at a cost of Rs 97,636 crore in collaboration with Japan, which has offered an assistance of over Rs 79,000 crores over a period of 50 years.
It takes about seven hours to travel between the two cities and the bullet train aims to reduce it to about two hours. It had been announced by railway minister Suresh Prabhu that the work on the flagship project will begin this year and is expected to be operational on schedule in 2023.
India has advanced the construction work by a year. Earlier, it was planned to begin in 2018.
The Railways had decided to adopt Shinkansen Technology for Mumbai-Ahmedabad HSR Project. The cooperation of Japan on this project will also be fixed on transfer of technology and “Make in India”.
The Maharashtra government was persuaded to give land at the Bandra-Kurla complex (BKC) for construction work. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) was opposed to giving the land wanted to use it for the proposed International Financial Services Centre (IFSC).
Railway has formed a National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL), a special purpose vehicle (SPV), with a paid-up capital of Rs 500 crore for the project. Railways has already allotted Rs 200 crore for the SPV and Maharashtra and Gujarat will have equity of 25 percent each, while the Railways will have 50 per cent in the SPV.
