Bullet Train project may face delays due to Covid-19

The work on land acquisition and tendering for the Ahmedabad-Mumbai high-speed rail corridor may face delays due to Covid-19 and the Bullet Train may fail to meet its 2023 deadline, officials aware of the development said.

So far 63 percent land has been acquired for the project, according to the project implementing agency National High-Speed Rail Corporation (NHSRCL).

The project connecting Mumbai and Ahmedabad has a deadline of December 2023. The Railways had said last month that the high-speed rail corridor is expected to be completed on time despite the Covid-19 outbreak.

The project has had to contend with issues ranging from protests by landowners to rising costs because of a widening gap between the Indian rupee and the Japanese yen; 80 percent of the Rs 1 trillion needed to fund the project will come from a 20-year Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) loan.

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The estimated total cost of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad project is Rs 1.08 trillion, of which 81 percent cost is planned for funding through the loan from the JICA, may be escalated, officials said. “Last year, the company had floated nine civil work tenders which could not be opened due to the pandemic. The deadline of the project is likely to be shifted further due to this,” the officials added.

Centre has signed a loan agreement with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for providing Rs 15,000 crore, of the total loan amount of Rs 88,000 crore.

“It is difficult to assess the impact of the pandemic (Covid 19) on the project as it still continuing,” NHRCL spokesperson told Hindustan Times.

“As per the feasibility study, the target date for the completion of Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail project is December 2023. About 63 percent land has been acquired for the project and tenders for civil works for 345 kilometres out of 508 kilometres alignment (68 percent of civil works) is already floated. This includes six MAHSR stations (including one underground station in Mumbai). The works related to utility diversion are progressing well and the construction of Sabarmati passenger hub (a multi-modal hub) in Sabarmati, Gujarat has also started. The hostel building of High-Speed Training Institute (which is presently being used for Covid patients) and training tracks in Vadodara are also completed,” he said.

One section of the Ahmedabad-Mumbai high-speed rail corridor is likely to be tendered out within three months after nearly 90 percent of the land acquisition for the project is completed, according to railway board chairman VK Yadav, Hindustan Times had reported on August 4.

Yadav had said there has been a “slowdown” in land acquisition due to Covid-19.

“As on date, we have acquired 60 percent of the land... Due to Covid situation there was some slowdown in land acquisition but it has started picking up now and we are sure over the coming six months, most of the land will be acquired,” he had told HT earlier. Indian Railways has so far completed 76 percent of land acquisition in Gujarat and 24 percent in Maharashtra, he said.

The national transporter has also begun feasibility studies on seven other potential high-speed corridors to gauge their financial viability and estimated traffic they will attract. The Indian Railways is exploring whether the corridors would be viable to run high-speed Bullet Trains with speeds above 300 kmph.

The seven proposed corridors are Delhi-Varanasi, Varanasi-Howrah, Delhi–Ahmedabad, Mumbai–Nagpur, Mumbai–Hyderabad, Chennai-Mysore and Delhi–Amritsar.