Saturday, Apr 27, 2024 | Last Update : 08:10 PM IST
Bullet train direction to change?
MMRDA doesn’t want train to clash with IFSC’s underground parking.
Mumbai: The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) wants to tweak the direction of the bullet train at the upcoming BKC terminal so that the Maharashtra government’s ambitious International Financial Service Centre (IFSC) could come up at the same place.
The MMRDA has written a letter to the Centre asking to relocate the bullet train’s direction at BKC. Both the projects share the same venue and hence the tussle for the space is at its peak. The Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train is Narendra Modi’s pet project.
While the bullet train terminal will come up underground, the IFSC will have underground parking.
Sources said MMRDA wants to tweak the course of the train by 90 degrees so that it won’t clash with the IFSC’s underground parking.
“Both the projects can come up at one venue. We have just requested the Centre to change the direction of the bullet train at the end. This will allow IFSC to be built at the same location and have an underground parking. We are hopeful that the small change will help both the projects to come up at the same place,” a senior official from MMRDA said.
Despite a controversy over sharing of land between the proposed IFSC and the bullet train terminal, the state government has decided to start work on IFSC from December.
There is a direct competition between the IFSC and the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT), in Ahmedabad, the Prime Minister’s dream project in his own state. The GIFT city, however, is ahead of the IFSC in terms of infrastructure. There have also been allegations from Opposition parties about shifting the financial centre to Ahmedabad when Mumbai is the financial capital of the country.
Mr Modi is scheduled to lay the IFSC project’s foundation stone in September. The state is pushing for the ambitious project even though there is controversy around the bullet train project.
Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is scheduled to visit Ahmedebad to lay foundation stone for the bullet train. Sources in the government said that the bullet train is an important project for Gujarat ahead of Assembly polls scheduled in December 2017.
The train is expected to cover the 508km distance between the two cities in two hours at an average speed of 320 kmph.
