India and Japan still quarrelling who is responsible for the delay in its high speed train project

Now, 'one anonay' is quarrelling with another 'anonay' over high-speed rail construction. Japan is blaming India for the slow progress of its high-speed rail construction over land acquisition, relocation of people and lack of commitment among other problems. Delay means cost escalation and that may result in payment issues for Japan.

India had proposed wanting HSR since talking about it in 1980, with the go-ahead in 2014, after more than thirty years of deliberation. More than 20 years passed and India's HSR is expected only to be functional by 2027 or 2028. Not the whole line, but only certain sections. In China, a decade would have seen tens of thousands of miles of HSR being constructed.

China was very fortunate to have failed to do the HSR construction for India, which was given to Japan. China realized early the problems regarding land acquisition in India that takes decades to resolve. It was a blessing in disguise for China not to be doing the construction and getting mired in problems that Japan is facing.

If I may say it out loud, even if China had been given the construction, it will face problems of payment when completed. India will come up with attempts to cut construction cost or delaying payments. That is the Indian modus operandi. Moreover, the other fear for China is that India may try to claim compensation for minor issues that may arise, tarnishing the image of Chinese technology.

Therefore, it is in China's best interest to avoid anything to do with India, be it investing or doing infrastructure development. Nothing good will come out of them.


Anonymous