Central government launches Mumbai-Ahmedabad HSR Corridor Project

The central government has launched the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail [HSR] Corridor Project that involves the development of a 508 km HSR corridor in Maharashtra and Gujarat. The project will be implemented by an SPV – National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited – incorporated by the Ministry of Railways (MoR) and the Maharashtra and Gujarat governments with an equity stake of 50:25:25 respectively. The project is estimated to entail an investment of Rs 1.08 trillion, of which around 81 per cent will be provided by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) as a soft loan at a minimal interest rate of 0.1 per cent for a period of 50 years. The first tranche of Rs 60 billion is expected to be released soon while the remaining tranches will be released after the completion of the land acquisition process. Currently, the survey work for the project is in progress and tenders for civil works are likely to be issued by March 2018. Meanwhile, construction work is expected to commence by end-2018, with completion scheduled for August 2022.