Will try to complete bullet train project by 2022: Goyal

New Delhi: The ambitious bullet train project between Mumbai and Ahmedabad is likely to be completed a year ahead of its stipulated deadline (December 2023). According to Railways Minister Piyush Goyal, the official deadline is December 2023, but the government would try to complete Bullet train by August 15, 2022.

"The commencement of construction work would start from September 14, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe will perform ground breaking puja in Ahmedabad. The present Modi government believes in completing works much before stipulated time and I'm confident that our talented engineers would complete the work much in advance," Goyal said while addressing mediapersons on Monday.

The minister also pointed out that the construction of the high-speed train corridor will provide 4,000 directs jobs for running the system and 20,000 indirect jobs.

Goyal also stated that the PM played a crucial role in helping the country to get the cheap loan from Japan for the construction of bullet train corridor. "The PM's goodwill and image instrumental in India getting such cheap loan from Japan for the bullet train," Goyal said, adding that the speed with which Modi-led government has implemented all projects has bolstered his confidence that bullet train will be completed on time.

Stating that India kept running railways on technologies that were discarded by other developed countries years ago, the Union Minister believes that introduction of bullet train will revolutionise the country's outdated railway system. "Make in India will eventually bring down the cost of bullet train manufacturing. We could export to the world," he added.

Goyal further said that bullet train would have the same impact on India's transport technology as Maruti had on automobile sector 30 years ago. He highlighted that 500-km of distance would be covered within two hours by bullet train, which would also have an effect on Mumbai-Ahmedabad flight sector.