The Union government doesn't see any stress in land acquistion for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project and is planning another high-speed rail project.
"The environmental and social impact studies are either complete or are near completion. I personally don't see any stress in getting the land," Union railway minister Piyush Goyal said on the sidelines of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) annual meeting.
The minister did not divulge details of the corridors and by when the planning for it would start. The new high speed rail project may be financed by AIIB.
He said the government wasn't facing any opposition from landowners neither for the bullet train nor for any other infrastructure projects that are being implemented across the country as the compensation has been increased to fivefold for the high speed rail project and fourfold for other infrastructure projects.
Japan International Cooperation Agency, or Jica, that is providing soft loan for the project has agreed to increase the annual funding for the maiden high speed rail project from $3 billion to $5 billion.
During the three-day AIIB meeting, Goyal held discussions with the multilateral bank representatives, who showed interest in being part of the subsequent bullet train projects.
After having picked up almost 28% of AIIB's total lending exposure of $1.4 billion for seven projects, the central government has lined up another nine projects for finance from the Beijing-headquartered bank. The amount was approved since 2015 when the multilateral development bank was in place. The concept of bank was first floated in 2014.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the annual meeting and address over 3,000 delegates attending the event.
...& ANALYSIS
- $1.4 billion Lending exposure by AIIB to seven projects in India
- $5 billion Jica to raise funding for the bullet train project
- The new high-speed rail project may be financed by AIIB
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 "Piyush Goyal")
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