New Delhi

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which has undertaken the feasibility study for a high-speed railway system on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad route, today presented the draft report to the joint monitoring committee here.

A joint monitoring committee has been set up comprising the Railways Ministry, Finance Ministry and External Affairs Ministry and Planning Commission now NITI Ayog from India with their Japanese counterparts.

The JICA team presented the draft report to the joint monitoring team here where a detailed presentation on traffic forecasting, alignment surveys and comparative study of high- speed railway technology was made to the members, sources in railways said.

JICA has completed its feasibility study for the much-awaited Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project and submitted its preliminary report to the Railway Ministry earlier.

Under a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between India and Japan, the study is being jointly funded by both countries. Earlier, a pre-feasibility study was also done by RITES, an arm of railways.

The bullet train is expected to run at speeds of around 300-350 km/hour.

According to sources, the cost of the ambitious project has now been estimated at Rs 90,000 crores from Rs 63,000 crores.

After the study of the financial feasibility of the line, JICA feels that the fare of the bullet train between Mumbai and Ahmedabad may be somewhere around one and half times more than the fare of the first AC of Rajdhani Express and it would be around Rs 2800.

It is estimated that by 2023 around 40,000 passengers are expected to avail this service everyday and accordingly it would be a financially viable service.

JICA is likely to submit the final report next month.

Besides JICA, SNFC of France has already carried out a feasibility study of the route and has submitted the business model to the ministry.

PTI