New Delhi

With the aim of launching the first high speed train in the country between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, railways has stepped up ground work for starting construction work of the Rs 98,000 crore project in 2017.

“Our aim is to start the work at the earliest. It would take about seven years after the awarding of the contract for the project to be completed as a lot of new technologies would be used to construct the high-speed corridor,” said a senior Railway Ministry official involved with the bullet train project.

The special purpose vehicle (SPV) formed to implement the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high speed bullet train project, is meeting tomorrow to finalise the technical details including standardization process for construction of tunneling, pillars, fencing and other requirement of the mega project.

The SPV has been named National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited comprising senior railway officials and the national transporter is in the process of appointing a CEO for the job.

Maharashtra and Gujarat will have equity of 25 per cent each, while the Railways will have 50 per cent in the SPV.

The bullet train is expected to cover 508 km between Mumbai and Ahmedabad in about two hours, running at a maximum speed of 350 kmph and operating speed of 320 kmph.

At present, Duronto Express takes about seven hours to cover the distance between the two financial centres.

Estimated to cost about Rs 97,636 crore, 81 per cent of the funding for the project will come by way of a loan from Japan. The project cost includes possible cost escalation, interest during construction and import duties.

It is a soft loan for 50 years at 0.1 per cent annual interest with 15 years moratorium, said a senior Railway Ministry official.

For timely completion of the project, a joint committee has been formed under the vice-chairman of NITI Aayog with the secretaries of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Departments of Economic Affairs and Foreign Ministry as its members along with the Railway Board Chairman.

PTI