Bullet train project acquires 60% land, but may fail to meet 2023 deadline

Apart from land acquisition, another major cause for concern before the project is cost escalation owing to a fall in the rupee against the Japanese yen.

Despite facing public protests and resistance from the Maharashtra government, the country’s first bullet train project between Ahmedabad and Mumbai has been able to acquire almost 60 per cent of the land required for the project. However, meeting the December 2023 deadline is still a cause for concern for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pet project on the back of the Covid-19 outbreak.

“We are on fast track. We have acquired 60 per cent of the land required for the project. Interestingly, in Gujarat it goes up to around 77 per cent,” said Achal Khare, managing director of the National High-Speed Rail Corporation (NHSRCL), the company in charge of India’s bullet train road map.

The total land requirement for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail corridor project was reduced to 1,380.08 hectares (ha), from 1,434.47 ha late last year, mainly due to actual reconciliation of the project scope. Of the total land required, 1,004.91 ha is private land. So far, around 820-830 ha has been acquired by NHSRCL.

35 trains a day: India to get first Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train by 2022

The train, to run between Ahmedabad and Mumbai, will be commissioned a year before the original deadline of December 2023

 

 

India's first bullet train from Ahmedabad and Mumbais likely to be completed by 2022, the year marking 75 years of India's Independence.

Railway Minster Piyush Goyal told the media on Monday that the project would be completed by 2022, much before the earlier deadline of December 2023. The foundation stone of the project, which will get a soft loan of Rs 88,000 crore from Japan, will be laid on September 14 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe.(economy news)

The first tranche of the loan, Rs 6,000 crore, will be released immediately, while the remaining tranches will come after the completion of land acquisition. Japan is providing the loan at a minuscule interest rate of 0.1 per cent, and the repayment will begin only after 15 years. The interest on the entire loan will be Rs 7-8 crore a month.

"The initial tranche of Rs 6,000 crore will mainly be for the dedicated high-speed rail training institute and for building the Sabarmati station. We are confident about completing the acquisition of 825 hectares of land within a year," said an official close to the development.

Initially, the route is expected to have 35 trains per day. This might increase to 105 by 2050. The trains are set to run at a speed of 320-350 kilometres per hour and will cover 12 stations -- Bandra Kurla Complex, Thane, Virar, Boisar, Vapi, Bilimora, Surat, Bharuch, Vadodara, Anand, Ahmedabad and Sabarmati.