NEW DELHI: The bullet train deal that India and Japan signed last week was only the first of several projects that are part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi ’s innovation drive in the country and an outcome of efforts by a core team of top officials.Working behind the scenes to get the deal on track was the prime minister’s Empowered Committee on Innovative Collaborations, which is taking up solar energy, industrial parks and road sector projects that use inventive and never-tried-before technology and solutions.The group – consisting of top officials and experts – negotiated and crunched numbers while making a case for Japan to clinch the Rs 98,000 crore deal without a bidding process. The planned bullet train will run between Mumbai and Ahmedabad and the 508 km rail line will be set up over the next seven years.The innovation committee includes Arvind Panagariya , vice chairman of NITI Aayog , P Shankar, former central vigilance commissioner, KM Chandrashekhar, former cabinet secretary, Amitabh Kant , secretary in the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion, and Shaktikanta Das, the economic affairs secretary, railway ministry representatives and chief secretaries of Maharashtra and Gujarat."We will see radical issues being taken up by this committee in the days to come," a senior government official told ET.The bullet train agreement signed by Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on December 12 was the first project taken up by the innovation committee after it was formed in October. While the committee can consider both public and private projects in any area, several government departments have approached it with innovative projects to get them fast-tracked.The panel – at the reference of the ministry of road transport & highways – is considering novel ways of getting road projects financed such as the Swiss Challenge Method, where a bid received for a public project or services is thrown open to third parties to match or improve.The committee on innovation was formed keeping in mind that government procedures can be time consuming and not always in step with rapid pace technology advancements. It also has the power to recommend relaxation for any proposal seeking exemption from prevailing policy or taxation regime on considerations of employment and revenue generation opportunity and other social and economic benefits. All proposals will be routed through DIPP, which will scrutinise and list pros and cons for each project."Japan has the largest operating system, a safety record with no fatality since 1964 in their high-speed rail network and they agreed to give us a highly concessional loan on easy terms," said another senior government official involved in preparing the assessment report of the bullet train project for the empowered committee.The committee will meet at least once every 15 days and advise government departments and agencies and the Foreign Investment Promotion Board on converting concepts into implementable projects.