High profile Bullet Train project: Kick-off slated for next month
The Government is putting on fast track the high speed bullet train project that will reduce travel between Mumbai and Ahmedabad from 7 to 2 hours. The official launch of the project will take place next month. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe will be performing its Bhumi-Puja (ground breaking) ceremony in Ahmedabad.
While no specific date is yet set for the ceremony, but it is expected to be between September 13 and 15 when Abe will be in Gujarat. Abe will be heading a team of the Japanese businessmen to explore investments in the state. Abe would not go anywhere else during this visit, but chief ministers of neighbouring states will be in Ahmedabad to seek investments from Japan.
The function has been planned at the instance of the PM as the bullet train will be showcases as the biggest achievement of his government, keeping in view the Gujarat Assembly polls slated in Gujarat in November-December with the BJP using him as the party’s face.
Notwithstanding this programme with an eye on the Gujarat polls, the actual work on the project will begin only in 2018, with the target date of putting the country’s fastest train on tracks by 2023.
The detailed project report envisages a total of 12 stations between Mumbai and Ahmedabad and the maximum speed of 350 km per hour and minimum speed of 320 km per hour. The number of stations may be reduced to speed up the train. To ensure the PM''s dream project for his home state is not delayed, the Indian Railways is hiring a consultant to look into land acquisition and other financial requirements, ensuring full compensation for land owner and jobs to their family members in the project. In order to make the investment process smoother, a Japanese agency instead of GIDC (Gujarat Industrial Development Co-operation) will be working out the project. However, the Japanese firms will get contracts for only 52 km of the track, while work on 450 km of the 508 km will be handled by the Indian contractors.
Since the government succeeded in persuading the Japanese experts to modify their project report for construction of major portion of the corridor on elevated track instead of most track on the surface land and this has reduced the land requirement to just 850 hectares. The government will also not have to shell out much as compensation to the land owners since the elevated corridor will allow them to use most of their land as usual.
Japan has assured India that its first bullet train will match the speed of the leading highspeed train systems across the world. The project is to cost approximately Rs 1 lakh crore, the funding coming from the Japan International Cooperation Agency.