Ahmedabad: Former prime minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday dubbed the Centre’s much touted bullet train project, an “exercise in vanity”. He said the government’s “priorities are misplaced” as it should have focused on the existing passenger rail network.
Addressing a party event for the business community in Gujarat, the Congress leader pointed out that the project would benefit neither 6.5 crore people of the state nor the nation. He said, “Gujarati entrepreneurs know very well that if a deal is too good to be true, it probably is not”.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe had in September laid the foundation stone for India’s first high speed rail project between Mumbai and Ahmedabad.
The joint venture between Indian Railways and Japan’s Shinkansen Technology is expected to be completed by 2022. India’s first bullet train will connect Ahmedabad, the largest city in Gujarat, to Mumbai, cutting travel time from seven hours to less than three.
Modi had said that Japan gave a loan of Rs 88,000 crore at 0.1 per cent interest for the project.
“The bullet train project, launched with much fanfare, is sadly an exercise in vanity and will not benefit either 6.5 crore Gujaratis or the nation,” Singh said.
“Rs 88,000 crore through a soft loan may seem like easy money, but it still needs to be repaid to the Japanese,” he said.
The government should have rather focused on the existing passenger rail network, India’s former Prime Minister said.
“The bullet train project requires the creation of a parallel infrastructure while our existing passenger rail network is languishing and needs a dire infusion of funds to improve both safety and speed,” he said.
“The past year has seen the highest number of deaths due to derailments in more than a decade, but the government’s priority are misplaced,” Singh said.
He wondered if the prime minister considered the alternative of introducing high speed rail across India by upgrading the existing broad gauge infrastructure.
Singh said the UPA government had in 2005 signed a deal with the Japanese government for a dedicated freight corridor.
“(The dedicated freight corridor) project will create a multiplier effect on the economy, with upgradation of transportation technology, increase in productivity and reduction in unit transportation cost,” he said.
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It is difficult to say what this country needs more now, new technology or repairing of existing. In one way I agree with our former PM that the government should make the existing network of rail better than to invest such large amount on a whole new network.
Not only is the Bullet train a hollow exercise in vanity, most of the moves by the Modi government seem to be made just for the optics.
Demonetisation too was a hasty, pompous exercise that brought misery to the masses.