Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train crawls in Maharashtra, project completion by 2023 distant dream

The ambitious Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project, which is supposed to cover the distance between both the cities in about just two hours, has run into more problems in Maharashtra.

Previously Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had termed the project as 'white elephant'.

Slow pace of land acquisitions, legal and environmental hurdles has caused the project to progress at a very slow pace while in Gujarat the project is progressing rapidly.

Only 22 per cent of land acquisition has been completed in Maharashtra so far, with no contract being awarded yet on the 508-km-long Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail Corridor, reported Economic Times.

Even the stretch connecting Thane to Virar, a 21-km tunnel, part of which is undersea, where no land acquisition is required, is stuck due to legal hurdles over chopping of mangrove forests to build it.

The project was sanctioned by the government five years back. The foundation stone was then laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with his then Japanese counterpart Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2017.

Out of the 508-km-long high-speed rail project, 348 km will be in Gujarat, 156 km in Maharashtra and 4 kms in Dadar & Nagar Haveli.  

The project was slated for completion by 2023 but that looks like a pipe dream with the current pace of progress. 

The delay in the project has been largely attributed to the Maha-Vikas Aghadi coalition government due to their non-committal stance in the matter.

The Shiv Sena, Congress, National Congress Party government which came to power in 2019 in Maharashtra had made clear that the project was not its priority. 

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray in an interview with 'Saamana' had already expressed his opposition to the project.

'Who will benefit from the bullet train? How will trade and industry in Maharashtra get a boost because of it? If it is useful, convince me and then let's go before people and decide what to do,' the chief minister had said. 

'The bullet train may be a dream project of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but when you wake up, it is not a dream, you have to face the reality,' he earlier said.