Govt in talks with Japan to reduce bullet train project cost, make it more in line with 'Make in India'

Aimed at reducing the cost of Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project and making it more in line with the 'Make in India' intiative, the Centre is in talks with Japan to explore the possibility of Indian companies taking some of the highly specialised engineering jobs.

With the government apprehending that post Covid-19 period, the economic situation may force it to cut down the cost on several big ticket projects, the Indian Railways is working on to reduce the cost of ambitious project of the NDA government.

The National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSCRL), the implementing agency for the project, also held discussion with Indian industry to assess the requirement and capability of domestic players.

Recently, NHSCRL also hosted a online meeting with Indian companies and consultants to understand their capacity, mainly on laying track and building steel bridges.

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, speaking at India Global Week on Saturday, hinted the government's plan to review the financial aspect of the project.

While insisting that the government is committed at implementing the project, the Minister said "Certainly Covid-19 has been a little bit of spanner in terms of the ambitions that we had around the bullet train project and we are relooking at all the projects in terms of the post-Covid world that will entail a lot of tightening of the belt, a lot of cost cutting and improving our efficiencies and aligning ourselves to how travel and transport will work in the after Covid-19 world."

Earlier, Railway Board Chairman V K Yadav during online media interaction said that the project is going on and acqusition of land is also in progress.

So far 60 per cent land has been acquired (about 77 per cent land in Gujarat, 80 per cent in Dadar Nagar Haveli and 22 per cent in Maharashtra). For the remaining land, a joint measurement survey of land required for the project is about to be completed, he said.

Though the deadline for build Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed corridor is 2023, the project has faced number of issues including delay in land acqusition, increasing the cost of project.

The NHSRCL has already floated 68 per cent of its civil work tenders, covering 345 km out of the total 508 km, along with a separate tender for fabrication of 28 steel bridges for the corridor in Maharashtra.

The estimated cost of project was Rs 1.10 lakh crore and in which Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) agreed to fund 81 per cent of the total project cost.