mumbai sources stated that days after union Finance minister nirmala sitharaman said in her Budget speech that the narendra modi government will “actively pursue” the Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train plan, maharashtra chief minister uddhav thackeray has called the project a “white elephant”. Meanwhile he made the comment in an interview, which appeared on tuesday, with shiv sena mouthpiece Saamana’s executive editor and party leader Sanjay Raut.
Furthermore the Rs 1 lakh crore bullet train project, funded principally by a soft loan from japan, is intended to reduce the travel time between ahmedabad and mumbai to a little over two hours, and will be the first such high-speed railway line in the country. prime minister modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe laid the foundation stone for it in ahmedabad on september 14, 2017. However, critics say india does not need the “vanity” project and investment should instead go into bolstering the existing network.
Moreover when resources are limited, they have to be used with utmost care. Perhaps the priority for the development of the state has to be decided. Just because someone is giving us loans at cheap rates, we can’t take white elephants as our priority,” said thackeray, the shiv sena chief, in an apparent jibe at bharatiya janata party (BJP) legislator and former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. Apparently the bjp leader had gushed at the low-cost loans that japan international Cooperation Agency (JICA) had offered maharashtra for several infrastructure projects. Reportedly in the second part of the interview which appeared on the Saamana website on tuesday, Raut asked thackeray about several initiatives championed by the bjp that have been either stayed or reviewed by his government.
