Road travellers will shift to bullet train: Achal Khare

How relevant is the high-speed train corridor between Mumbai-Ahmedabad? Why would air passengers shift to this mode of transport?

Our fare will be about one-and-a-half times of the First class AC train fare, which comes to about Rs 3,000. It's much cheaper than non-promotional airfare. Moreover, it will be far convenient and less time consuming if you take out the lead time required to travel by air. However, according to our feasibility study, we are expecting 70 per cent of our ridership to come from road traffic. People who use car or luxury buses take 8 hours to reach Mumbai from Ahmedabad. They will save precious 6 hours journey time and travel in comfort.

How has been the progress of the corridor? Some reports say it is lagging behind schedule

As far as the planning stage is concerned, we are bang on target. One needs to understand that this kind of project is being done for the first time in India. It needed to finalise new technical standards as our requirements were very different because of the changed topography and environment etc. First, we required to finalise the alignment that required a detailed survey. Then came the tedious exercise of making the land plan for which identification of critical structures was necessary. We have completed this stage within the stipulated time.

What was the most difficult aspect of this stage?

Making the land plan as it required detail and minute survey and clearance for critical structures like national highways, state highways and major crossings. We had identified 59 critical structures. Of these, we have already acquired written consent for 53 structures from other authorities, the rest six are in the discussion stage. A team of 80 Japanese engineers is in the advanced stage of making a design for 13 critical structures. We are hoping to float our first big tender in a month from now.

What about land acquisition? There are reports that it is facing roadblocks

Our land plan has already been shared with the district collectors under whose jurisdiction there are 297 villages where we would require land. The project requires the land acquisition of 1,434 hectares. We have completed a joint-land measurement survey of 360 km of the required 460 km. Our compensation is perhaps the best land acquisition package offered till date, which is the best rate plus 25 per cent more. We would also be paying an interest rate of 12 per cent per annum from the date of notification. All this makes it a highly lucrative deal. Though we would require to shell out about Rs 3,000 crore extra, we are still doing it to acquire land only through the consent of the farmers.

The date for your project completion has been advanced from 2023 to 2022. Will you be able to deliver it?

It is a tough challenge but we are trying our best to achieve it. We are very hopeful of opening the high-speed corridor between Surat and Bilimora on August 15, 2022.

Infographic: Ganesh Gamare; Illustration: Gajanan Nirphale