By Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi, January 9: The ambitious Ahmedabad-Mumbai high speed rail corridor has completed 100 per cent land acquisition. The popularly called bullet train project is running far behind the schedule with the officials blaming the delay to the slow land acquisition process.
Union Minister for Railways Ashwini Viashnaw in a post on the social media platform announced that 100 per cent land acquisition has been completed for the bullet train project. Notably, the National High Speed Rail Corporation had almost a year ago had said that more than 99 per cent of land had been acquired for the bullet train project.
The officials in the NHSRC had said that a few parcels of the land had been stuck in Maharashtra because of several issues, including environmental clearance. The officials had even blamed the erstwhile Maha Aghadi government headed by Uddhav Thackeray for not approving the land acquisition in time for the ambitious bullet train project.
The ambitious bullet train project is being funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency. The Rs 1.10 lakh crore project was initially planned for completion by 2022. But now the officials of the Railways claim that the first trial run of the bullet train will be undertaken in 2026. The Railways is aiming to run the first commercial operation in 2027.
Viashnaw in another social media post had said that while 100 per cent land acquisition has been completed Land acquisition, the railways has achieved Pier Casting for 268.5 Km and Girder Launching for 120.4 Km. It may be noted that the bullet train will run on an elevated corridor while a section in Maharashtra will also be under the sea waters.
The NHRC said in a statement that a “critical milestone of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail project was achieved with 100 per cent acquisition of 1389.49 hectare of land for transformational Bullet Train project”. The maximum land parcel acquired for the purpose is in Gujarat where the NHRC has acquired a total of 951 hectares of land. The NHRC has also acquired more than 430 hectares of land in Maharashtra. Land has also been acquired in Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
The bullet train project is expected to herald high speed train journey in the country. While Japan and China have a number of bullet trains, India is still trying to advance to the semi-high speed mode. The premium trains such as Vande Bharat run at speed averaging around 90 kmph. The bullet trains in contrast run at speed of 350 kmh and more. The semi-high speed trains run at speed of 160 kmph.
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