‘Bullet train project progress satisfactory’

New Delhi: Expressing satisfaction with the ongoing Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train project, the Chief Representative of JICA India, Saito Mitsunori, said that the PM Gati Shakti plan has accelerated public works in the country.

In an interview, Mitsunori also expressed Japan's interest in enhancing India's border road networks and participating in the transnational power transmission project with Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh. "Once the project concept is in the pipeline, meaning the official preparatory route within the government, clarity is there, and everybody is able to assess and monitor progress …. So, that has helped a lot in accelerating public works in this country," Mitsunori said. The JICA India chief mentioned that the situation has improved a bit, as earlier it took years to get clearance from the local authority, causing project delays and cost overruns. Japanese funding agency JICA has been the funding partner of India's several multi-billion infrastructure projects such as metro projects in Chennai, Ahmedabad and Delhi and several other projects across sectors such as rural development and education. The government launched the PM Gati Shakti Plan in 2021 to provide multimodal connectivity infrastructure to various economic zones. Speaking about the progress of the Ahmedabad-Mumbai High-Speed Corridor project, the Chief Representative of JICA said that the agency is excited to see work on all sections started. The Japanese official said that all uncertainties about the project have been removed. “We are really excited to see the work on all sections, such as Ahmedabad to BKC in Mumbai. The big change was on July 22 when the Maharashtra government decided to start tendering works within the state… The undersea tunnelling work between Mumbai and Thane has started.