Calling the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project economically unviable in its present format, former Maharashtra CM Prithviraj Chavan, has said that it will be scrapped, if his party is voted to power.
Calling the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project economically unviable in its present format, former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, has said that it will be scrapped, if his party is voted to power.
According to a report by Mumbai Mirror, the Congress party strongly opposed a proposal seeking an additional Rs 250 crore funds for the state’s share for the bullet train project, during the Assembly session in Nagpur on Tuesday. Despite opposition, the provision was passed in the Assembly.
Chavan has accused Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, of pursuing their political motivations in the guise of the bullet train project.
“Shinzo Abe’s tour of India was unscheduled. And the deal was signed so that both Abe and Narendra Modi benefit politically,” Chavan said, alleging that when the deal was finalised, Abe was facing elections in Japan while Modi had the Gujarat assembly polls around the corner, the report suggests.
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“When the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government had ordered the study for it, the cost was about Rs 65,000 crore. After Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government assumed office, it increased to Rs 95,000 crore,” further growing to a “whopping Rs 1, 10,000 crore when the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed with Japan,” Chavan said, pointing towards the inflated valuation and increasing cost of the project.
Chavan said that a simple calculation of a single fare journey between Mumbai and Ahmedabad was enough to prove that the project is not cost-effective.