Mumbai, November 22: Amid the ongoing political turmoil in Maharashtra over government formation, the bullet train project between Mumbai-Ahmedabad is likely to be affected. Reports state that Prime Minister  Narendra Modi's highly ambitious bullet train project may hit a roadblock if the Congress-NCP-Shiv Sena combine comes to power in the state. In September 2017, Prime Minister and Shinzo Abe had jointly laid the foundation stone for the Bullet train project in Ahmedabad. The 508-km Ahmedabad-Mumbai high speed train project is slated to be completed by 2023.

On Friday, Congress leader Manikrao Thakre stated that it is almost final that the next Maharashtra Chief Minister will be from Shiv Sena. He said NCP has never demanded the position of Chief Minister. According to a report by NDTV, the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alliance, which is hoping to form a government in the state, is mulling to scrap the bullet train project. Uddhav, Aaditya Thackeray Meet Sharad Pawar at Midnight as Shiv Sena, NCP, Congress Move Closer to Seal Alliance in Maharashtra.

According to a report by IANS, a senior NCP source was quoted saying that "during the first meeting of the three parties in Mumbai last week, discussions were held on the Ahmedabad-Mumbai Bullet train project. Giving details about the meeting, the source informed the leaders that according to Central government, the Maharashtra government would be bearing Rs 5,000 crore of the total Rs 1.08 lakh crore cost. Maharashtra Government Formation: Sanjay Raut Reiterates Shiv Sena CM Will Be For 5 Years, Says 'Won't Side With BJP Even If Offered Lord Indra's Throne'.

The NCP source was quoted in an IANS report saying that during the meeting, they came to a conclusion that once the NCP forms the government in the state then we will inform the Central government that the state government will not bear the cost of the high speed train project and will spend the same money on some other pro-people schemes.

According to the deal of the India's first bullet train project, the NHSRCL, which is responsible for undertaking the construction, has, till date, acquired over 48 per cent of the land for the project and also floated tenders for several works.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 22, 2019 01:42 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).