Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s bullet train project which was scheduled to run between Ahmedabad, Gujarat and Mumbai, Maharashtra is set to hit a deadlock if Shiv Sena, NCP, and Congress comes in power in the state of Maharashtra.
According to reports, the three part alliance (Shiv Sena, NCP, and the Congress) may announce the official alliance decision today, but more importantly, they are considering to scrap the bullet train project altogether, which is first of its kind in the country. Additionally, they said that Maharashtra government will not put in a single penny for the project. The cost of the project is being said to be over Rs. 1 lakh crores.
In September 2017, both PM Modi, and (Japanese) PM Shinzo Abe together laid the foundation stone for India’s first bullet train project. Japan will be giving a loan of Rs. 88,000 crores to India at a trivial interest of 0.1%.
According to a senior Congress leader (talking to a leading News Channel) ‘If the project has to go ahead, the centre should bear all cost of it. Maharashtra won’t expend on the bullet train project’.
On condition of maintaining anonymity, the leader said that the alliance has matters of farmers’ welfare and complete loan waiver of farmers, which will be given priority.
IANS, a news agency were told ‘during the first meeting of the three parties in Mumbai last week, discussions were held on the Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train project in which we informed the leaders that according to central government, the Maharashtra government would be bearing Rs. 5,000 crore of the total Rs. 1.08 lakh crore cost’ by a senior NCP leader.
He also added ‘then we came to a conclusion that once we form the government in the state then we will inform the Central government that the state government will not bear the cost of the high speed train project and will spend the same money on some other pro-people schemes’.
The bullet train project which will run between Ahmedabad, Gujarat, and Mumbai, Maharashtra was said to be completed by 2023, and the bullet train itself will have the capability of reaching the speed of 350 kilometres per hour.
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NHSRCL (National High Speed Railway Corporation Limited) is given the responsibility for the construction of this project, has already acquired near to 50% of the land that will be needed for the project. NHSRCL has already passed tenders for various works associated with the bullet train project.
The Shiv Sena, NCP, and Congress are calling their alliance ‘Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi aka Maharashtra Development Front’. Sharad Pawar today said that he wants Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray to lead the government for full 5 years. The new government is likely to be formed in the first week of December.
