Railways says bullet train on track, rules out renegotiation on loan with JICA

Amid worry over delay in land acqusition and escalation of cost of Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train, the Indian Railways has said the project is on course.

The railways also ruled out any plan to renegotiate the terms and condition of loan with funding agency Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

The National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL), the implementing agency, is facing a number of issues, including delay in land acquisition and rising cost.

So far only 60 per cent of land has been acquired for the project, which has a deadline of December 2023.

Of the estimated cost of Rs 1.10 lakh crore for the 508-km-long high-speed rail corridor project, Rs 88,000 crore will be given to India as loan by JICA.

While admitting there will be cost escalation, Railway Board Chairman V K Yadav also denied that there was any renegotiation on the loan with JICA.

“Yes, there is cost escalation, but this is not the right time to review costs. That will be done when we finalise tenders. As in any project, we finalise the estimated cost based on historic cost. But the actual cost is known only when tenders are invited. That is the time when we come to know what the project cost is shaping up,” Yadav told reporters.

He also said the physical work on the project will begin after 90 per cent of the land has been acquired.

Tenders have also been invited for nine packages so far, he added.

“I want to confirm that there is no renegotiation as far as the terms and conditions of the loan is concerned,” Yadav said.

As far as cost escalation is concerned, in some projects the cost bound to increase due to various factors including inflation or due to change in design, he said.

Earlier, speaking at India Global Week event, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal had indicated that the financial aspect of the ambitious bullet train project between Mumbai and Ahmedabad was being reviewed.

“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,” Goyal had said in response to a question on the status of the ambitious project.

The bullet train project was launched at a ceremony in Gandhinagar in Ahmedabad in September 2017 attended by the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, along with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.