India on Friday said cooperation with Japan on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed railway project is “progressing well” and both sides have agreed to launch the first section in 2027, after a former Japanese minister blamed the Indian side for delays in a social media post.Hideki Makihara, who was involved in the project while serving as Japan’s vice minister of economy, trade and industry, alleged on Wednesday that India’s “sheer recklessness” during meetings and negotiations had slowed progress. He also alleged that New Delhi did not “keep promises”.“For the honour of all the Japanese folks who poured their hearts into this, I have to say it: I feel 100% that the reason this hasn’t moved forward is entirely on the Indian side,” he added. Responding to the remarks, external affairs ministry Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said the comments reflected “an individual opinion and [were] at considerable variance with facts”.He added that discussions between India and Japan are progressing well and that construction has “rapidly progressed”, with the first section due to open in 2027.Jaiswal also said Japan will be able to provide the E10 train series only in the early 2030s because it is still under development.“Both sides agreed to start the operations with Indian high-speed train,” he said, adding that the signalling equipment had been ordered in line with international specifications and that no Japanese offer had been received on this aspect.He said the project was being executed in line with the shared goal of starting high-speed rail operations at the earliest.Makihara’s post was linked to an article by Isao Tsujimura, a Japanese engineer based in India, who claimed that India’s choice of European-origin signalling equipment and an indigenous high-speed train could make the system incompatible with Japan’s Shinkansen trains.The Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail corridor, India’s first bullet train project, will span 508 km across Maharashtra and Gujarat, with trains expected to run at speeds of up to 320 km/h. The first section between Surat and Bilimora is expected to open on August 15, 2027, though the project has faced delays and cost overruns since it was launched in 2017 and missed its original completion target of 2023, Hindustan Times reported.Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.