Maharashtra may lose Mumbai-Ahd bullet train as MMRDA says no land

MMRDA says not enough land for terminal at Bandra-Kurla Complex

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream of connecting Ahmedabad with Mumbai by a bullet train might remain unfulfilled. The project is likely to be shifted out of Maharashtra for want of land in the state capital. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has informed the railway ministry there is no space for a terminal at the Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) for the Rs 65,000-crore project that would cut down the commute time between the two cities by about half.

According to the state undertaking, implementing transport and infrastructure projects in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, providing large plots for the bullet train terminal at the sprawling business centre would be difficult as it expects to house offices of many national and international agencies there.

Dilip Kawathkar, joint project director (public relations), MMRDA, told Business Standard, “The MMRDA is unable to provide land needed for a bullet train terminal at the BKC, which has been its major revenue-generating source. The MMRDA has already conveyed its stand to the Union government. As of date, there has been no further oral or written communication from the railway minister asking the MMRDA to reconsider its stand.”

Though Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu has decided to soon meet state Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who also heads the MMRDA, to find a way to fulfil Modi’s pet project, the ministry is believed to have started looking for a location outside the state.

A Bharatiya Janata Party minister in the state Cabinet who did not wish to be named hoped Prabhu and Fadnavis would be able to keep the project in the state, adding the Centre had already made budgetary allocation of Rs 100 crore for it. “The Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train will be quite crucial, especially when the chief minister has already declared the state government’s resolve to transform Mumbai into an international finance centre with the help of the central government,” the minister said.

The railway ministry has estimated a cost of Rs 125 crore a km for a proposed high-speed corridor meant for the train.