Mumbai: The proposed bullet train for the route Mumbai-Ahmedabad will have comparable rates with the conventional railway fares according to the Maharashtra Chief Minster Devendra Fadnavis. He spoke about the fact while addressing the Legislative Council on Friday.

This was in response to a calling attention motion by Congress’ Sanjay Dutt.

Dutt questioned the rationality in the 50-50 cost sharing for proposed bullet train, with the fact that 67 per cent of the high speed rail route would be in Gujarat State area. He demanded the Chief Minister to conduct a cost benefit analysis.

“Priority should have been the safety of passengers, modernisation of tracks. An IIM study says the bullet train will need to make 100 rounds and ferry one lakh commuters daily for it to be viable,” Dutt said.

Fadnavis said economic viability had already been checked. “The cost of commuting in a bullet train ticket would be as much as the normal railway fare,” Fadnavis said.

Fadnavis, further reasoned by replying to the motion and said that the airports continued to be built on every latitude and longitude of the country despite the fact that just three percent of people travel by air because mobility has led to the development and growth.

He also said that the bullet train project need to be replicated on other routes once the first one is completed. The Bullet Train was first proposed under the government of Prime Minster Manmohan Singh.

He also went on providing details, and commenting upon the loan by Japan, he said, that the loan is total period of 50 years and that no money is needed to be returned for the first 20 years. He also said that the rate of interest was less than 0.5 percent.

“There will be technology transfer and creation of employment. The infrastructure sector contributes most to the growth of GDP. With this project, there will be massive creation of jobs,” he said.

Fadnavis further commented over the issue of China providing the same loan at a better interest rate than Japan, and said that accepting the former’s proposal was not a viable option.

“China had given commercial loans to Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Both countries defaulted. Here the loan that we will get will almost be a non-commercial one. Also, after 20 years, our fiscal space will be much bigger so it will not be much of a burden to repay it,” Fadnavis said.

Replying to the question posed by Dutt of cost sharing between the Maharashtra and Gujarat, Fadnavis said three states had contributed financially to the formation of Konkan Railway, while Maharashtra had benefited the most from it.

“We do not just look at the immediate benefits but from a long term perspective,” he further added.

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