Subject: Project Management

Name Roll No. PRN Email Id Department

Kedar Dhongade TCH11 0120180103 ksdhongade@mitaoe.ac.in Chemical
Rutuja Darade TCH09 0120180200 rsdarade@mitaoe.ac.in Chemical
Akshay Dani TCH41 0120180400 asdani@mitaoe.ac.in Chemical
Akash Babel TCH04 0120180447 aababel@mitaoe.ac.in Chemical

Discussion on the First Case Study

Bullet Train Project in India
Purpose –
Mumbai–Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Corridor is an under construction high-speed rail line
connecting the cities of Ahmedabad, Gujarat, and India's economic hub Mumbai. Construction is
expected to begin by April 2020, and the project is expected to be completed by December 2023. The
corridor will use Japan Railways' Shinkansen E5 Series as its rolling stock.
Planning –
As of July 2020, 60 of required land has been acquired and the rest is "almost on the verge of
completion", civil works tenders covering 68% corridor (345 km out of 508 km, of 245 km 77% land
in Gujarat, 80% in Dadar Nagar Haveli and 22% in Maharashtra) and a separate tender for 28 steel
bridges have been allocated, remaining tendering process is under way.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed in New Delhi on 14 February 2013 between
the Ministry of Railways and the Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Français (SNCF), the French
national railways, for technical cooperation in the field of railways. The Board took the decision due
to financial constraints, as the ghat section between Pune and Mumbai would escalate the budget for
the project. India and Japan signed a MoU to undertake a joint feasibility study of the Mumbai-
Ahmedabad route in New Delhi in September 2013. This was in pursuance of the Joint Statement
between the then-Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh and the Prime Minister of Japan Shinzō
Abe on 29 May 2013, which provided that the two sides would co-finance a joint feasibility study of
the route.
Cost –
The bullet train is estimated to cost Rs1.1 lakh crore, 81% of which is being funded by the Japan
International Cooperation Agency through a 50-year loan at an interest rate of 0.1%. The National
High Speed Rail Corporation has been set up to execute the project, for which Maharashtra and
Gujarat will each contribute Rs 5,000 crore as equity while the Centre’s share is Rs 10,000 crore.

Facts of the Case

1. The bullet train will have 12 stops of 165 seconds each. It will take two hours and 58 minutes from
Ahmedabad to Mumbai if it stops at all 12. If it stops at four stations -- Ahmedabad, Vadodara,
Surat and Mumbai - it will cover the distance in two hours and seven minutes.
2. The Railways will run 35 bullet trains when it starts operations, with about 70 trips per day. It
plans to increase the number to 105 trains by 2050.
3. The Railways will only require around 825 hectares of land for the project as 92 per cent of the
route will be elevated, six per cent will go through tunnels and only the remaining two per cent
will be on ground.
4. A 21-km-long tunnel will built on the train between Boisar and Bandra Kurla Complex in
Mumbai, of which seven km will be under the sea.
5. Initially, the train will have 10 coaches with a total seating capacity of 750 passengers. Later, it is
proposed to have 16 coaches with a seating capacity of 1,250 passengers.
6. Railway Minister Piyush Goyal has said bullet train fares will be "affordable for all". The train
will have two categories of seats - executive and economy -- with prices comparable with the base
AC 2-tier fare of the Rajdhani Express.
7. The 12 stations that have been proposed are Mumbai, Thane, Virar, Boisar, Vapi, Bilimora, Surat,
Bharuch, Vadodara, Anand, Ahmedabad and Sabarmati. The train will require a cleaning time of
four hours, after running for 20 hours.
8. Around 1.6 crore people are expected to travel by the train every year when operations begin. The
government says by 2050, around 1.6 lakh commuters will travel by the high-speed train on a day.
9. The two prime ministers also laid the foundation stone for an institute that will come up at
Vadodara, where around 4,000 people will be trained for the bullet train project.
10. Japan's loan of almost Rs. 88,000 crores at a minimal interest rate of 0.1%, has to be repaid over
50 years. Repayment will begin only after 15 years. The first tranche of the loan, Rs 6,000 crore,
will be released immediately, while the remaining tranches will come after the completion of land
acquisition.

There is indeed a great need for this project to be successful in our developing country India.
The reasons are as follows:
Convenience:

 Having an alternative mode of transport will decongest the roads.

 Also, the speed of bullet trains will save the time and boost the businesses in large cities
where time is money.
 The interconnectedness between the towns and cities would reduce the hassle of commuting
thereby helping in reducing the migration.
Safety:

 Safety has been one of the major concerns of Indian Railways.

 The record of bullet trains in the field of safety has been impeccable.
 The Shinkansen trains of Japan started in 1964 report no fatalities till date.

Environment-friendly:

 In today’s global environmental scenario, any step which checks the pollution is welcome.
 The emissions of CO2 per passenger km from speed rails is way less compared to that of
automobiles and aeroplanes. It emits an eighth and a fifth of emissions respectively.

Economic growth:

 It will help in the infrastructure development thereby spurring the economic growth and
creating huge employment opportunities.

The major stakeholders are as follows:

1) RITES (earlier known as Rail India Technical and Economic Service) is an engineering
consultancy company, specializing in the field of transport infrastructure. Established in 1974
by the Government of India, the company's initial charter was to provide consultancy services
in rail transport management to operators in India and abroad.
2) Italferr is a consulting and project company belonging to FS (Ferrovie dello Stato), the
Italian railway state company. Italferr, the Italian State Railways Group engineering firm,
operates on the Italian and international markets in the field of railway transport engineering.
3) SYSTRA is an international engineering and consulting group in the mobility sector, whose
fields of activity include rail and public transport. In 2019, it employed a staff of about 7,300
people, and is a limited company owned by the RATP, the SNCF and banks.
4) The Ministry of Railways is a ministry in the Government of India, responsible for
the country's rail transport. The ministry operates the state-owned Indian Railways, an
organisation that operates as a monopoly in rail transport and is headed by the Chairman of
Railway Board.
5) The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (SNCF, "French National Railway
Company") is France's national state-owned railway company.
6) The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is a governmental agency that
coordinates Official Development Assistance (ODA) for the government of Japan.
The pre-feasibility study for the Ahmedabad–Mumbai–Pune corridor was completed by a
consortium of RITES, Italferr and Systra.
Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the SNCF carried out studies on the project.
JICA researched the technology, alignment and traffic-related aspects, while SNCF worked on
business projections. The feasibility study included an alignment survey concerning aspects such as
land acquisition, environmental challenges and building of tunnels and bridges. It also suggested a
financial model based on fare and non-fare box revenue.

Issues where there is a clash of interests

According to The Hindu, the latest information collected by an RTI activist Jeetendra Ghadge has
revealed that the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project can turn out to be a loss-making project.
The state Transport Department in its report, in the RTI reply, has responded that the investment in
the project can be lost in the form of wasted Floor Space Index and the investment is not
economically viable. The State Finance Department in its note said, “the estimated annual return of
the project is less than the expenditure, therefore the chances of losses are high”.
In the last two years, India has seen its worst fate of railways with more than 150 accidents causing
nearly 50,000 causalities. And there are still 7,701 unmanned railway crossings. When the safety of
Indian railway is itself in doldrums, it’s high time that India should invest in the safety of railways and
improving the conditions of Indian railways.
Major work components with their target dates to complete the project by 15th Aug 2022.
1. Construction was expected to begin by 2020
2. India and Japan signed a MoU to undertake a joint feasibility study of the Mumbai-
Ahmedabad route in New Delhi in September 2013
3. Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) officials visited Mumbai in January 2014
to discuss the details of the project.
4. In January 2016, the Ministry of Railways fast tracked the project and set up a Special
Purpose Vehicle (SPV) named the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited to build
and operate the corridor.
5. In late 2016, JICA awarded the detailed design study for the project to a consortium led by
Japan International Consultants for Transportation (JIC), Nippon Koei India Pvt. Ltd and
Oriental Consultants. The study formally began in March 2017.
6. The project received clearance from the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) in January
2019 to carry out construction in and around wildlife areas.
7. Civil construction of the corridor was expected to begin by June 2018, and the project was
scheduled to be completed in 2023. The deadline was advanced to have the bullet train go on
its first run on 15 August 2022
Metro man Mr E Shridharan – the qualities desirable in the Project Leader and team members.
a) Pick a few good men – Have the ability to tackle uncertain situation
b) Punctuality – To be on time in the office
c) Short deadines –
Stagnation sets in after efficiency so pull up goal posts and demand higher quality standards
to force constant improvements. DMRC executives say every time their goal seems
achievable and easy, Sreedharan throws up a surprise by setting a tighter deadline. He then
works with his team to make it possible.
d) Every person shoud be a virtuous doer.
e) Knowledgeable team members
f) A project leader should create a comfortable environment and should keep the team members
morale up.