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'Centre spurns Fadnavis' plea to include Nashik in bullet train corridor'
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SME Times News Bureau | 08 Dec, 2018
The Centre has outrightly rejected Maharashtra's plea to extend the
upcoming Ahmedabad-Mumbai Bullet Train corridor via Nashik, according to
recent RTI replies received by a Mumbai activist Jeetendra Ghadge here
on Saturday.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had written
separately to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Railway Minister Suresh
Prabhu on January 13, 2016 urging the inclusion of Nashik in the
first-ever High Speed Rail project, or Bullet Train, to be implemented
in India.
"The alignment now recommended by the consultants
covers only three cities in Maharashtra: Mumbai, Thane and Boisar (in
Palghar district). I think that the state will truly benefit from the
HSR Project if the network is extended to other important cities in the
state," said Fadnavis' letter.
Buttressing his plea, the Chief
Minister pointed out that during his (official) visit to Japan earlier,
he had explored the possibility of extending the HSR Project to include
Nashik, which is already a part of the ambitious Mumbai-Howrah Diagonal
on the proposed HSR Diamond Quadrilateral.
"I therefore request
you to consider the Mumbai-Nashik HSR Project as the first phase of the
proposed HSR Quadrilateral Network to be developed by the High Speed
Rail Corporation of Indian Railways. I would be grateful if this project
is announced in the forthcoming Railway Budget of FY 2016-2017,"
Fadnavis had pleaded.
While Modi and Prabhu did not respond to the plea, only the Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha replied to the letter.
Much
to the state government's shock, Sinha categorically rejected its
request to include Nashik on the grounds of 'feasibility'.
However,
the MoS Railways assured that Nashik would be considered in the
proposed feasibility study of the Mumbai-Nagpur Bullet Train project
being planned.
"The fact that the Maharashtra Chief Minister
requested to connect Nashik proves that the state has no practical
benefit of the Bullet Train Project as currently proposed. It seems like
the state government is forced into accepting the project since it is
the Prime Minister's pet project which will benefit his home state
Gujarat," Ghadge said.
In planning since 2010, the HSR Project
materialized with the grand announcement of the Ahmedabad-Mumbai Bullet
Train proposal in 2014.
It will be built at a cost of around Rs
1.10 lakh crore, with nearly one-fifth of the amount coming as a
long-term soft loan from Japan.
On the first-ever
Ahmedabad-Mumbai corridor, there will be eight stations in Gujarat -
Vapi, Billimora, Surat, Bharuch, Vadodara, Anand, Ahmedabad, while
Maharashtra will get around three.
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