Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train project may hit roadblock

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's highly ambitious Bullet train project of the National High Speed Railway Corp (NHSRCL) between Mumbai-Ahmedabad may hit a roadblock if the Congress-NCP-Shiv Sena combine comes to power in Maharashtra.

Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had jointly laid the foundation stone for the Bullet train project in Ahmedabad in September 2017.

A senior NCP source told that "during the first meeting of the three parties in Mumbai last week, discussions were held on the Ahmedabad-Mumbai Bullet train project in which we informed the leaders that according to Central government, the Maharashtra government would be bearing Rs 5,000 crore of the total Rs 1.08 lakh crore cost."

"And then we came to a conclusion that once we form the government in the state then we will inform the Central government that the state government will not bear the cost of the high speed train project and will spend the same money on some other pro-people schemes," he said.

The party source said that the state government will spend the amount for farmers' welfare.

The 508-km Ahmedabad-Mumbai high speed train project is slated to be completed by 2023.

The NHSRCL, which is responsible for undertaking the construction, has, till date, acquired over 48 per cent of the land for the project and also floated tenders for several works.

(Anand Singh and Syed Moziz Imam can be respectively contacted at anand.s@.in and imam.m@.in)

( With inputs from IANS )