New Delhi: India Friday rejected former Japanese minister Hideki Makihara’s allegations pertaining to delays in the India-Japan bullet train project, calling it one person’s opinion and “at variance with facts”.
In a post on X this week, Makihara had blamed the Indian government for delays in the construction of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail (MAHSR) corridor, alleging that the Indian side dishonoured promises made during negotiations and kept “pushing their own self-interest”.
Randhir Jaiswal, official spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs, said at a regular press briefing Friday: “It is an individual opinion and at considerable variance with facts. India-Japan discussions on Mumbai-Ahmedabad high speed rail are in fact progressing well. Japan will provide E10 series trains, but only in the early 2030s. The train in question is still under development. Meanwhile, construction work has rapidly progressed. The first section will be opened in 2027 itself. Therefore, both sides agreed to start the operations with an Indian high speed train.”
He added: “The signalling equipment has been ordered accordingly and is in line with international specifications. No Japanese offer was received in this context. The project execution is in line with the common goal of starting the high speed train project at the earliest.”
Makihara had in a long social media post claimed that India “does not keep promises, no matter what”.
“The Shinkansen project in India is something I was involved with myself, but what stood out in international meetings and negotiations was the sheer recklessness of the Indian side, over and over,” the former justice minister had further written.
He’d added: “They just don’t keep promises, no matter what. Even if they make a promise, they flip it right away. They keep pushing their own self interest right up to the very end.”
His major grouse on the signalling system was rejected by the Indian side. India decided to adopt the ETCS-2 signalling system for the MAHSR, which is the European Train Control System.
Jaiswal said no Japanese offer was received, and India accordingly chose the signalling system it found appropriate to complete construction of the project.
The India-Japan bullet train project, which is expected to cost around Rs 1,08,000 crore, is being executed through a soft loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
Phase one of the project connecting Surat with Bilimora is set to begin services from 15 August 2027. The project is set to entail a 508-km railway network, drastically cutting down the travel time between Mumbai and Ahmedabad. It is considered a flagship project of the development cooperation between New Delhi and Tokyo.
A joint statement issued following Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s visit to New Delhi earlier this month had an entire paragraph on the project, as India is keen to grow its high speed railway network to around 7,000 km in the future.