Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ambitious bullet train project between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, may take the elevated route. That is if the Japanese consultants give a go-ahead to Rail Bhavan's request for a route review before the execution stage.

Top Rail Bhavan officials confirmed that the Indian government wants the entire 508-km corridor to be built on an elevated stretch to avoid any legal and environmental hurdles regarding land acquisition. PM Modi, who has been pushing his ministers to speed up the big-ticket projects, has often encountered legal barriers in several states.

Bullet trains facing legal issues

Top Railway Board officials told Mail Today that anticipating a possible derailment of the bullet train project because of legal issues, they have requested the Japanese government "to revise and reassess the feasibility of doing away with constructing the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail (HSR) link on embankment and build it entirely on an elevated corridor". The government wants to know the cost implications of this idea.

A senior Railway Board official said: "Constructing the elevated corridor will save the Centre the hassle of land acquisition. For an elevated corridor, compensation amount to land owners will be little. Also, it will ensure speedy execution of the project."

Already more than 440 rail projects have been stuck over land acquisition. This, according to a CAG report of 2015, has resulted in cost overrun of Rs 1.07 lakh crore. Railways also faced major hurdles in acquiring land for its ambitious dedicated freight corridors that will significantly decongest the railway network and increase the speed of passenger trains.

Rail Minister Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu has announced that the bullet train will start its operation in 2023. But if both the Indian and Japanese governments agree to the idea of an elevated corridor, the deadline can also be advanced, say Rail Bhavan officials.

The Detailed Project Report (DPR) submitted by Japan to the Rail Ministry has proposed 25 per cent of construction on elevated corridor, 64 per cent of the work on surface (mostly embankments) and 6 per cent as tunnels. This includes the 21-km undersea tunnel between Thane creek and Virar in Mumbai. However, the rail ministry has proposed to the Japanese government to explore the feasibility of converting the entire route running through 12 stations into an elevated corridor.

"If the Japanese authorities find the proposal feasible, the DPR will be revised," an official said. "The difference in the project cost would only be Rs 7,000 to Rs 8,000 crore. Construction of the elevated corridor will be costlier per km, but the government may save on the cost of land acquisition and delay overruns.

India may follow China's strategy

India is also closely watching China, which has managed to bring down its cost of construction by going elevated. To put the project in a fast lane, the Rail Bhavan is also urging their Japanese counterparts to appoint a design consultant soon. According to the MoU between India and Japan, the loan agreement will be signed by December 2016 only after which Japan will go ahead with fund disbursal by mid-2017. The appointment of design and general consultants for the project can take place only after that. The construction work is scheduled to begin by 2018. But the Railways officials are in no mood to sit idle for nearly a year.

India has requested Japan to appoint the consultants before the loan agreement is signed and make possible a grant of Rs 1,500 crore towards fees (total consultancy charge being nearly Rs 3,000 crore) for consultants to get the work started. This will advance work by at least a year.

The urgency to save time is also because the project is not without a few engineering challenges. Such pioneering projects like the Kashmir Rail Link had posed many problems delaying them by years. Railway officials on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad HSR route are readying for a similar challenge in constructing the undersea tunnel in Mumbai. But this time, India has with it Japanese experience and expertise in constructing tunnels under the seabed. Japan and the UK have undersea tunnels. The 53.85 km Seikan Tunnel in Japan is the longest one followed by the 50.5 km Channel Tunnel between the UK and France.



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