Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai) filed an application Tuesday with the transport ministry for approval of a plan to build a magnetically levitated train line between Tokyo and Nagoya by 2027.
JR Tokai is expected to start construction as early as October following approval by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, which will screen mainly the technical and safety aspects of the plan.
The Tokyo-Nagoya maglev train line will pass through seven prefectures to link Tokyo and Nagoya in only 40 minutes, compared with roughly 100 minutes taken by the current bullet train.
The line will be extended to Osaka in 2045 to shorten the Tokyo-Osaka trip to 67 minutes.
JR Tokai intends to shoulder the entire Tokyo-Osaka maglev train line construction cost, estimated at ¥9 trillion.
The plan estimates the Tokyo-Nagoya section will cost a total of ¥5.524 trillion, up ¥93.5 billion from an earlier estimate.
The company also released its final report on its assessment of the plan's environmental impact and allowed local governments of the seven prefectures to read the report over a one-month period, ending its environmental assessment procedure for the plan.
"We want to proceed with construction while giving sufficient consideration to safety and environmental issues," JR Tokai Executive Vice President Shin Kaneko told a press conference.