PM Modi is on Japan tour, know the reality of his bullet train dream
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in Tokyo, the capital of Japan, to attend the Quad conference. This is his fifth visit to Japan in his eight years as PM.
Whenever there is mention of Japan in India, the memory of bullet train gets refreshed with it. And when Prime Minister Modi is on a visit to Japan, there are two reasons to remember the bullet – first Japan and second PM Modi himself.
The credit for showing the dream of bullet train to the people of India goes to Prime Minister Modi. The project was launched in a ceremony attended by the Prime Ministers of both India and Japan.
In the same year, the Indian Railways had said, “All efforts will be made to complete the work of Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail by August 15, 2022.”
But in 2017 itself, NITI Aayog had said that the project would probably be completed by 2023.
Status Report of Bullet Train Project
In the year 2020, the East Japan Railway Company also released the first picture of a bullet train running on the tracks in India. It was told that the Shinkansen bullet train of the E5 series will come to India.
When Prime Minister Modi is on a visit to Japan in May 2022, 17 percent of the project work has been completed. This has been claimed in an Aaj Tak report quoting RTI. Through the Right to Information Act, Aaj Tak has obtained this information only on 1 February 2022.
On May 20 this year, the Ministry of Railways has made a tweet on the progress of the bullet train.
In this video the progress report of the project till 5th May is shown through aerial shots.
The video shows the progress of the ongoing work in Valsad, Navsari, Surat, Bharuch, Vadodara, Anand, Kheda, Ahmedabad and Sabarmati. But there is no mention of the part to be built up to Mumbai.
The video has been made by National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) only. There is no mention of any deadline in the video.
Project Delay
But seeing the video, it can be said that till the year 2023, this train will not be seen running on the track in reality.
Experts are telling the real reason behind this due to the Corona epidemic and the delay in land acquisition.
According to the information that has come out so far, till December 2020, the land acquisition work in Maharashtra was not completed. At that time, Railway Board Chairman Vinod Kumar Yadav had said that “The Maharashtra government has promised to acquire 80 percent of the land in the next 4 months.”
Features of bullet train
The speed of the bullet train of Japan reaches up to 320 kilometers per hour.
Under India’s bullet train project, the train will connect Mumbai with Surat and Ahmedabad, in which 12 stations are proposed. Under the project, 8 stations will be in Gujarat and 4 stations will be in Maharashtra. Only 21 km of track will be on the ground. Rest of the track will be elevated.
According to experts, the 508 km which now takes eight hours to complete, the bullet train will cover that distance within three hours.
The Government of India has tied up with the Government of Japan for this. Japan is giving a loan of Rs 88,000 crore for this project at the rate of 0.01% for fifty years.
When the dream of bullet train was first seen by PM Modi, then in 2014-15 its total cost was estimated at Rs 98000 crore. By the year 2020, the cost of the project had increased to Rs 1 lakh 10 thousand crore.
Shinkansen Bullet Train of the E5 Series
Effect of delay
After that the corona epidemic, the decline in the global economy, inflation and its effect on India – if you add all this up, then this cost would have increased further. This is what the experts say.
Speaking to the BBC, Mr. Prakash, who was formerly Member Traffic in the Ministry of Railways, said, “The central government seems to have the will to complete this project, but due to the Corona epidemic and delay in land acquisition, the project has been delayed. “
He said, “A project of more than 500 km distance takes at least five years, that too after land acquisition. If the land acquisition work is completed in the next 2 years, then by 2029-30 this project It can be completed. And in such a case the cost of the project will also increase by around 60 per cent. That is, it will be between one lakh 60-70 thousand crores.”
In view of the mutual differences between the Central and State Governments regarding the project, a possibility is also being raised that it may be possible that after completing the project in the Gujarat part, the train may be put on the track first.
According to the information received from the Railways, the trial of bullet train between Surat and Bilimora will start by 2026-27.
However, Sriprakash says, “If this happens, the concept behind bringing the bullet train to India will end. Through this PM Modi wanted to connect two commercial cities of two states. There is a good distance between these two cities Ahmedabad and Surat anyway.” Road and rail service already exists.”
