New Delhi: Hideki Makihara, former Japanese minister of justice, has blamed the Indian government for delays in the India-Japan bullet train project, alleging that the Indian side dishonoured promises made during negotiations and kept “pushing their own self-interest”.
“For the honour of all Japanese folks who poured their hearts into this, I have to say it: I feel 100 percent that the reason this hasn’t moved forward is entirely the Indian side”, Makihara wrote in a post on X Wednesday.
He also wrote about the minister in-charge being “especially awful”, adding, “if the top guy’s like that, there’s no way to have any decent dealings”.
The tweet by the Japanese politician came just days before India’s first hydrogen train was unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Haryana’s Jind.
Congress MP Pawan Khera used the Japanese politician’s post to take a jibe at the ruling dispensation, calling it “another feather in PM Modi and the Reel Minister’s cap”, and criticising the government for handling the project in “such a disgraceful way that the government’s incompetence is now being criticised even by foreign officials”.
Another feather in PM Modi and the Reel Minister's cap.
A former Japanese minister who was personally involved in the India–Japan Shinkansen project has claimed that, despite Prime Minister Takaichi's visit, the project failed and that Japan was excluded from the signalling… https://t.co/3ISN6NuhmN
— Pawan Khera 🇮🇳 ಪವನ್ ಖೇರಾ (@Pawankhera) July 17, 2026
Spanning 508 kilometres and 10 cities, the bullet train was first launched by PM Modi and his then counterpart Shinzo Abe in 2017. The venture, for which the Government of Japan is providing 81 percent funding through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), was originally slated to be completed by 2023. But the project has been plagued by delays and cost-overruns.
Last week, the ministry of railways announced that the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train will open phase-by-phase starting next year, beginning with the Surat-Bilimora section.
Once complete, the high-speed train, running at a speed of 320 km/hour, is expected to substantially cut travel time between the two cities to 2 hours and 7 minutes, with limited stops.
The estimated cost of the project is Rs 1,08,000 crore and 1,390 hectares of land have been acquired for it. The corridor is being built using Japanese Shinkansen technology.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
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