Railway Minister visits Japan to resolve bullet train issues ahead of Modi visit this year

Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw leads officials to Japan to resolve issues hindering India-Japan bullet train project.

Senior officials led by Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw undertook a three-day trip to Japan in September to resolve a number of problems that have resulted in a deadlock between India and Japan over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pet project — the bullet train. Sources said, among the problems they discussed were Japan’s insistence on Japanese vendors for the trains and signalling systems, as well as costing and timing estimates for the completion of the project. Member (Infrastructure) Railway Board, Anil Kumar Khandelwal, and Vivek Kumar Gupta, Managing Director of the National High Speed Rail Corporation Ltd (NHSRCL), also accompanied Mr. Vaishnaw, sources said, as pressure to complete construction milestones in the project grows ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Tokyo for the annual summit later this year.

Officials said that while the entire land acquisition in Gujarat and Maharashtra had been completed, and 215 km of viaduct of the total 508 km distance was completed, the deadlock over costs for supplying rolling stock or train sets and signalling systems still persists. 

“Japan which is providing all the technical support and technology for running the bullet trains is keen that the train sets and the signalling system be purchased from Japanese suppliers only,” sources in the know told The Hindu. 

According to Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) loan conditions, only Japanese manufacturers such as Kawasaki and Hitachi can participate in the bid. 

The increase in the project’s costing is also becoming another issue. According to NHSRCL figures, an expenditure of up to ₹60,372 crore (unaudited) has already occurred between FY 2021 to FY 2023-24, against a total outlooked budget of ₹1.08 lakh crore. 

“A majority of this cost has been spent in creating infrastructure for the bullet train like constructing the viaduct, girder casting and launching, laying rail level slabs and so on. This leaves increasingly small margin for spending on buying the train sets and setting up the signalling systems,” officials said indicating the project costs will further escalate. 

The train, built with Japan’s Shikansen technology, that was first launched exactly 60 years ago in Japan (on October 1, 1964), will run at lightning speed, about 320 km/hour between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, covering the total distance in about 3 hours, and was due to begin operations in 2023.