With railway minister Piyush Goyal thrusting hard to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi's advanced deadline of August 2022 - instead of December 2023 - railway board chairman Ashwani Lohani has taken the responsibility of key monitoring and chairing the periodic review meetings on himself (earlier done by another railway board official). 1.10 LAKH CRORE PROJECTThe 508-km Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail project would cost around Rs 1.10 lakh crore. The strong Japanese consultant contingent here in India is preparing a master implementation programme to finish the project in a time-bound manner with Indian Railways. "The consultancy part is ready and the engineering and basic infrastructure report will be ready by January 2018 and it will be followed by signalling and electrical reports by April," said a railway board official. WATCH | Bullet train symbol of new India, Japan proved to be our true friend: PM Modi

Source: India Today November 04, 2017 22:59 UTC