Calling the bullet train "extremely essential" for India, Railway Board chairman Ashwani Lohani today said that the public transporter looked at it as a project that would unleash technology-driven transportation in the country.


The National High Speed Rail Corporation, a special purpose vehicle of the Railways and the state governments of Maharashtra and Gujarat, is implementing the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train corridor with technical and financial assistance from Japan. The project has had its share of controversies with a section of people questioning the need for it and others agitating against its land acquisition process.


"The advent of bullet train is extremely essential for out country as it will unleash technology-driven transportation," Lohani said in Mumbai today.


"By running a bullet train, we wanted to commission a medium of rapid transport which can run at par with air travel as far as speed is concerned," the CRB said. He added that the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high speed corridor has a deadline of December 2022 and said the Railways was hopeful of completing it by then. -- PTI