Railways: All clear for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train, says Fadnavis
Mumbai: After several obstacles that the former Uddhav Thackeray regime created over the last two-and-a-half years, the new Maharashtra government has given all the clearances for expediting the Rs. 1.10 lakh crore Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project, state Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Thursday.
Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has given all the clearances for the massive project, he told a press conference after the state cabinet meeting.
The train will cover a distance of over 500 km in around two hours.
The estimated cost of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project is Rs 1,10,000 crore, out of which Rs 88,000 crore are being funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his former Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated recently, were the prime movers of this project. They had laid its foundation in Ahmedabad in September 2017.
Over 70 percent of the land required in Maharashtra for the project has been acquired in Thane and Palghar districts.
The previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government headed by Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray had not tried to put the project on the fast track. Thackeray had instead asked the railway ministry to build the high-speed train corridor between Pune and Nagpur cities.
(VP)
