‘Maha funds diverted for bullet train’
Mumbai, Oct. 28: Former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan on Saturday alleged that the state government is in the process of diverting the funds of the proposed Karad Chiplun railway line project to the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project.
“Shapoorji Pallonji Co Pvt Ltd, which had inked a memorandum of understanding with Konkan Railway Corporation Limited in August 2016, has now withdrawn from the (Karad- Chiplun railway line) project. The company was supposed to construct the new train line between Karad and Chiplun at a cost of `3,195 crore,” Mr Chavan said.
“No decision was taken since the MoU was signed and the company had to wait for almost a year. Now, it has pulled out. I suspect it is being done to divert the funds for bullet train,” the senior Congress leader alleged.
In order to realise Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious `1,10,000-crore bullet train project, a loan of `88,000 crore will be taken from Japan. The funds will be given at a very low rate of interest of 0.1 pe cent per annum by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). This loan has to be repaid to Japan in 50 years, with 15 years grace period. Mr Chavan, however, said that land acquisition costs are not considered in these figures.
“The state government will have to spend for it (land acquisition) from its treasury. Hence, the land acquisition costs in the Karad-Chiplun railway line project are going to be diverted to the bullet train project,” Mr Chavan, who represents Karad South Assembly constituency, alleged.
“Even if the interest rate is just 0.1 per cent, I think we will have to repay it in the Japanese currencyyen and the appreciation rate of yen is three per cent every year. In the last decade, the Japanese yen has appreciated over 60 per cent. So imagine, how much we will have to repay to the Japanese partner after 15 years,” he added. He also raised question marks over the sharing of expenses for the bullet train project.
“When only 24 per cent length of the bullet train route passes through Maharashtra, why should we bear equal share with Gujarat? It means we are paying more by cancelling the already-sanctioned projects in the state,” he said. The Congress veteran said, the bullet train project was announced just ahead of the Gujarat elections, although its signing of MoU had taken place much earlier.