Acquiring land for bullet train project may get delayed, says Piyush Goyal

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Railways minister Piyush Goyal assured that this will not affect the deadline decided for completion of the bullet train project — set for 2022.

The December 2018 deadline to acquire land for the Japanbacked Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project is likely to be extended by one or two months, hinted Union Minister for Railways Piyush Goyal. Speaking at The Economist India Summit in Mumbai, Goyal said, “We are hoping to complete it (land acquisition) by the end of this calendar year, or maybe one or two months beyond that.”

However, the minister assured that this will not affect the deadline decided for completion of the project — set for 2022.

“We are advancing steadily on the project on all fronts. It is possible to meet the deadline of 2022 because of advanced Indian engineering and political will,” he said.

According to Goyal, the undersea tunnel and its engineering and logistics are proving to be challenging, while land acquisition on either side of the tunnel is in progress. He said, “Because the government has met all deadlines set for the former, it is possible to meet the decided timeline.”

Goyal added, “The government, of course, has the power to acquire this land, but whenever possible we want to engage with the affected people and sort out the issues by consent.”

Goyal announced that Indian railways will be 100% electrified by 2023, and solar-powered within the next 10 years.

Indian railways share passenger and freight train corridors on important routes. By 2020, the railways will add 10,000 km of dedicated fast and semi-fast train corridors for passenger trains, Goyal said.

He also spoke about five new routes that have been shortlisted to be converted into dedicated high-speed corridors, which include connecting Chandigarh, Bangalore, and Agra, with other important cities such as Mumbai and Delhi.