Work on NDA's bullet train project achieves 25% progress

The NDA government’s pet project Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail corridor — India’s first bullet train — has progressed 25 per cent till the end of January 2023.

NHSRCL (National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited) in its report submitted to the Ministry of Railways said that the project witnessed overall physical progress of 25.63% as against the target of 30.06% till January 2023. So far a total of Rs 36,722.60 crore spent on the project, said the report.

The NHSRCL is working on expediting the project to meet its deadline as the work progress is being monitored by Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw personally, said an official in the Railways.

The government has set the target to start the trial run between Surat and Billimore sections in Gujarat in August 2026 and it expects the entire stretch between Ahmedabad and Mumbai to be operational in 2027.

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The bullet train project between Mumbai and Ahmedabad was sanctioned in December 2015 at an estimated cost of Rs 1,08,000 crore with 80 per cent Japanese funding as an easy loan. The foundation stone for the project was laid in September 2017.

Earlier the project was planned for completion by 2023 but it has witnessed multiple extensions due to delays in land acquisition mostly in Maharashtra.

The railway ministry has claimed that the project execution gained momentum as 98.22per cent land has been acquired in Maharashtra, in Gujarat, 98.87 per cent land has been acquired and in Dadra and Nagar Haveli, 100 per cent of the land has been acquired for the project.

The project recently received a major boost with the Bombay High Court dismissing a petition brought by Godrej and Boyce Manufacturing Company Limited challenging the Maharashtra government’s grant of Rs 264 crore in compensation for acquiring its land project