No BKC stop for Bullet Train; cost may escalate to Rs 1 lakh crore

The tracks of bullet train from Ahmedabad to Mumbai might need to shift a few spaces. 

Sameer Dixit of Zee Business reports that the Maharashtra Government, on Friday, rejected the proposal of building bullet train station at Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC). 

This will put an additional burden that may take the total cost of the project to over Rs 1 lakh crore. The current estimated cost of the project is Rs 98,000 crore approximately. 

Railway Ministry may now have to search for a new place to build station for the bullet train in Mumbai. 

According to sources, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis informed Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu that Maharashtra Government is not ready to provide the land in BKC for constructing the bullet train's station.

Following to this, the government has offered another land in Bandra, near BKC. 

Indian Railways has forwarded this offer to Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). Now the agency will study the land details and provide a report on the same. 

In April, Prabhu had said that the first bullet train project between Mumbai-Ahmedabad is already underway and is expected to be ready by 2023. The estimated cost of this project is about Rs 97,636 crore and 81% of the project will fund by Japan.