Bullet Train Project Has Entailed Rs 14,153 Crore Till Date, Set To Miss 2023 Deadline

Apart from the pandemic, the main reason behind the delay in the project has been slow pace of land acquisition, especially in Maharashtra.

The ambitious Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project has till date incurred a cumulative expenditure of Rs 14,153 crore, yet it may not be able to meet its original deadline of completion which is scheduled for December 2023. According to highly placed sources, delay in land acquisition and the adverse impact of the Coronavirus pandemic has led to the delay in the project, which had begun in September 2017 when both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had laid its foundation stone.  Despite the delay, the project has been allocated Rs 14,000 crore for the current financial year in the Union Budget and the expenditure incurred during 2021-22 till date has been Rs 2,090 crore, according to Railway Ministry data. Apart from the pandemic, the main reason behind the delay in the NDA government's pet project has been slow pace of land acquisition, especially in Maharashtra. According to the National High Speed Rail Corporation of India, the implementing agency of the project, out of the total 432 hectares to be acquired in Maharashtra, only 101 hectares of land has been acquired till February 2021.