NEW DELHI, Dec 19: For the first time, the Embassy of Japan in India on Saturday released the official visuals of photos of E5 Series Shinkansen, which after modifications will become “bullet train” to run on Ahmedabad – Mumbai corridor.
In official terminology the project is known as Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Project. The project is scheduled to be completed by 2023 but is likely to be delayed as land acquisition has not been done in Maharashtra.
On September 24, the National High Speed rail Corporation had opened the bids for the nearly 1.08 lakh crore project. Larsen and Toubro won the contract outbidding Tata Projects, Ircon International–Afcons Infrastructure–JMC Projects consortium, and J Kumar Infra Projects–NCC-HSR consortium.
This tender covers nearly 47 per cent of total alignment of the corridor between Vapi and Vadodara in Gujarat and includes four stations — Surat, Vapi, Billimora and Bharuch — as well as 24 rivers and as 30 road-crossings.
No work has begun on the projects Maharashtra stretch so far as the Maha Vikas Aghadi government is not keen on the project.
Once the bullet train starts, the 500-odd kilometer distance between Mumbai and Ahmedabad will be covered in two hours.
(Manas Dasgupta)
