Fadnavis relented after promise of Mumbai-Nagpur bullet train

Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, September 14

The Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train was stuck till the last minute as Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis delayed allotting land at the Bandra-Kurla Complex till the last minute.

The Centre won him over by clearing his pet Mumbai-Nagpur bullet train project, sources said.

The Mumbai-Nagpur bullet train will ply beneath the proposed expressway that is to run between both the cities, officials say. “The Centre has agreed to let the Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA) to fund this project on terms and conditions similar to the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train,” a senior official said.

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Though bureaucrats connected with the Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi corridor, as the project is known, have come under a cloud for buying land along the expressway for speculative purposes, land acquisition for 706-km road is proceeding in full swing, according to sources.

Several townships are planned to be developed on either sides of the expressway. The Mumbai terminus of the bullet train will be located beneath the proposed International Financial Centre which is to come up at the BKC. The railways will soon begin a feasibility study for constructing the bullet train between Mumbai and Nagpur.

Run it between Delhi & Kolkata

"The bullet train should have run between New Delhi and Kolkata, passing through Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, the two states having maximum number of unemployed and poor." Akhilesh Yadav, Uttar Pradesh former Chief minister