Japan Consortium keen to take up Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Project

 The Dollar Business Bureau At the recently concluded 21st Indian Engineering & Technology Fair (IETF) 2015 organized by industry body the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Japan highlighted the capabilities of its “Shinkansen” bullet train technology in a detailed presentation to India The Japanese consortium led by East Japan Railway Company is keen to take up the contract for constructing the 500 km railway high speed network that will link Mumbai and Ahmedabad. The projected cost of railway linking Mumbai and Ahmedabad is approximately between US$ 12.2 billion to US$ 13.9 billion. Twelve stations will be built along the route, with the high speed train covering the distance in two-and-half hours as against the current eight hours. India will have to work out the necessary details which includes fund raising and land acquisition for construction to start in 2017. It is also likely that the Japanese official development agency, JICA would propose to help raise the necessary funds for the project. India plans to have, in stages, around 4500 kms of high speed train tracks in the country. Most prestigious among them would be the diamond quadrilateral corridors connecting the four metros Delhi-Mumbai-Chennai and Kolkata. Besides this, there would also be nine corridors running semi-high speed trains, with speed ranging from 160 kmh to 200 kmh. The Indian and the Japanese governments had initiated a joint feasibility study in late 2013 for the project and the final report is expected to be released by mid-2015. The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JETRO) is also participating in the feasibility study. Japan also happens to be one of the largest players in the high speed train space in the world, competing for the project. In an earlier interaction with The Dollar Business, Ken Sasaji, Executive Director, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Government of Japan had said that the Japanese Government was ready to work with India under the ‘Make in India’ policy and had sought an incentivized tax structure together with a better business environment in India to help Japanese investment.  

This article was published on March 10, 2015.