The Railway Board has allocated ₹5,000 crore to the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Project through extra-budgetary resources, according to its pink book released for the financial year 2020-21.
The project has been in the midst of a political storm ever since the Maha Vikas Aghadi came to power in Maharashtra. The revised outlay for the project for 2019-20 has been pegged at ₹1,000 crore, most of which, senior railway officials said, has gone towards land acquisition.
The corridor will have a length of 508.17 km, with 155.76 km in Maharashtra and 348.04 km in Gujarat. “In Gujarat, most of the land required for the project has been acquired, but in Maharashtra, only 50% of the required land has been acquired, most of which is government land,” a senior railway official associated with the project said.
In Maharashtra, the project has seen stiff resistance in Palghar, where 109.06 km of the corridor has been planned through several tribal villages.
‘White elephant’
Calling the project a “white elephant”, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday said a decision on moving forward with the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project will be taken only after he is convinced it will boost the State’s industrial development.
The ₹1.08 lakh-crore project is being financed with the help of a tied loan from the Japanese International Cooperation Agency, which is financing 80% of the cost, with ₹10,000 crore being borne by the central government and ₹5,000 crore each being provided by the Gujarat and Maharashtra governments.
