The ambitious 508 km-long Ahmedabad-Mumbai High Speed Rail Project, popularly known as the Bullet Train project, will be impacted by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, officials said on Saturday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his former Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe on September 14, 2017 had laid the foundation stone of the ambitious Rs 1.08 lakh crore ($17 billion) project.
Speaking to IANS, National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) Achal Khare said, “Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic there is an impact on the project as we are unable to do many things.”
He said, “We cannot assess how much impact this pandemic will have on the project as this pandemic is continuing.”
He was responding to a question if the Bullet train project will be delayed or miss its deadline of December 2023.
When asked about the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic of the tenders, the NHSRCL floated last year for many works, Khare said, last year we opened the tender for the undersea tunnel project to the Japanese bidders.
“Had there been normal times things could have been different, now the perception is completely different. Now the Japanese have opened this tender for Indians, so this will have an impact,” Khare said.