Mumbai

The railways today said it was in talks with Maharashtra government over land allocation for the proposed Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train terminal at Bandra Kurla Complex.

The land where railways had proposed the station is the same place where the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) is planning to develop the International Financial Centre.

The state government had earlier ruled out providing land in the plush commercial district of BKC for the proposed terminal and asked the railways to use its own property for the work.

“Discussions are going on with the Maharashtra government and nothing has been finalised on the same. The proposed terminal will be an underground station, three levels below the ground level and the above space is available for the centre,” Railway Board Chairman A K Mittal told reporters at the ongoing Make in India Week here.

“We are in talks with them (Maharashtra government) and they have not completely refused (our proposal),” he said.

He said having an underground train station will increase the valuation of that land and the proposed centre.

Expecting green signal for the land acquisition to be completed by late next year or early 2018, the Railway Board chairman said the project will be completed in five years from date of its commencement.

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has agreed to fund nearly 81 per cent of the total Rs 98,000 crore for the 508km-long Ahmedabad Mumbai high speed rail corridor.

JICA has also agreed to provide the loan on long term basis for a term of 50 years and moratorium of 15 years at a rate of 0.1 per cent.

“Japanese technology will be used and there will be less than 30 per cent of components from Japan if at all sourced will be manufactured in India. Today there was a first joint monitoring group meeting to discuss on the time-lines and modalities related to the project,” Mittal said.

The railways has undertaken the project of setting up manufacturing facilities for diesel locomotive and electric locomotives.

Indian railways awarded contracts to GE and Alstom to set up diesel and electric locomotive factories in Bihar.

“The total initiative cost is Rs 40,000 crore for both the projects. The Indian railways will provide an equity contribution of Rs 100 crore each for both the projects,” Mittal said, adding that the railways wanted to set up more such units.

PTI