Racing against time, the bullet train project, the most ambitious initiative of the Indian Railways, has achieved overall physical progress of 33.68 per cent against a target of 35.97 per cent, a shortfall of 2.29 per cent till May 2023.
The 508-km-long Mumbai-Ahmedabad high speed rail corridor, a first in India, is being constructed at an initial estimated cost of of Rs 1,08,000 crore, which has now gone up to nearly Rs 2 lakh crore, which includes the cost of the tunnel portion, due to delays and fluctuating yen value.
According to the Railways, the Japanese side was requested to submit an implementation program for completion of Gujarat portion (352 km out of 508 km) where 97 per cent of land was already available.
National High Speed Rail Corporation Ltd (NHSRCL) had submitted Master Implementation Plan (MIP) to the Japanese side with a completion period of six years by August 2027.
In subsequent joint committee meeting , the issue of MIP was discussed and the Japanese side indicated that phased commissioning in Gujarat (Vapi-Sabarmati section) would be done in August 2027, as a common target between Japan and India could be considered.
According to the NHSRCL, the major reasons for shortfall are delay in tendering in Maharashtra, late land acquisition and delay in invitation of tenders for system and rolling stock packages.
As far as financial progress is concerned, the project funded by Japanese, has incurred an expenditure of Rs 44,158.73 crore upto 31 May, 2023 and a spending of Rs 1,778.34 crore in the month of May.
The total expenditure of Rs 1,950.37 crore has been incurred in the project in the fiscal 2023-24.
The Japanese team has submitted the Preliminary Survey Report for rolling stock, to suit Indian conditions. According to the survey report, there was approximately 5 per cent reduction in the seats and luggage weight reduced to 10 kg.
The report has recommended for increase in size and weight of main transformer, converter-inverter and auxiliary power unit to suit the Indian climatic conditions of higher temperature and dust.
NHSRCL has taken up the work of compensatory plantation in a big way. By the end of the month of May, over 87,150 saplings have been planted while total number of trees transplanted on the project is 8,003.