India’s First Bullet Train Project Gains Pace Nearly Nine Years After Launch
NEW DELHI — Nearly nine years after India launched work on its first bullet train corridor, the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail project has crossed several major construction milestones, even as questions remain over costs, deadlines and final execution.
The 508-kilometer corridor, known as the MAHSR project, was launched in September 2017, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi and then-Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe laid its foundation stone. The project is designed to bring high-speed rail travel to India using technology based on Japan’s Shinkansen system.
A recent progress update from Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw showed that 349 kilometers of viaduct structure have been completed. The elevated viaduct will carry nearly 90% of the route above ground and is among the project’s most important and costly components.
The ministry said 443 kilometers of piers, or concrete support pillars for the elevated corridor, have been erected. Electrical infrastructure work is also moving ahead, with more than 7,700 overhead equipment masts installed across 179 kilometers of the alignment.
The National High Speed Rail Corporation Ltd., which is implementing the project, has also advanced track and civil works. More than 570,000 noise barriers have been installed along 288 kilometers of the route to reduce sound impact in populated areas. Track bed construction has progressed across 374 track-kilometers, equal to about 187 route-kilometers.
One of the project’s most difficult sections is in Maharashtra, where construction was delayed for years because of land acquisition issues and political opposition. Work has since picked up. Officials said 5 kilometers of the 21-kilometer underground tunnel between Mumbai’s Bandra-Kurla Complex and Shilphata have been excavated.
The tunnel section recently drew attention after NHSRCL said the cutter head of India’s largest tunnel boring machine had been lowered into a launch shaft at Vikhroli in Mumbai. The cutter head weighs about 350 tons and measures 13.6 meters in diameter. It will be used to excavate one of the most technically challenging parts of the corridor.
The underground section includes what is planned as India’s first undersea rail tunnel, with about 7 kilometers of tunneling beneath Thane Creek. Vaishnaw described the machine as having the largest cutter head ever used in an Indian railway project.
The corridor is planned to connect 12 stations across Maharashtra and Gujarat, with a small section passing through Dadra and Nagar Haveli. The planned stations are Mumbai, Thane, Virar and Boisar in Maharashtra; and Vapi, Bilimora, Surat, Bharuch, Vadodara, Anand/Nadiad, Ahmedabad and Sabarmati in Gujarat.
NHSRCL officials said station construction in Gujarat is at an advanced stage. Contracts for station plazas at Surat, Bilimora, Vapi, Bharuch, Anand and Vadodara have been awarded. In Maharashtra, work has begun on all three elevated stations, while foundation work is underway at the underground Bandra-Kurla Complex terminal in Mumbai.
The project is also moving toward domestic train production. Although the corridor is based on Japanese high-speed rail technology, the trains are now being developed in India.
In late 2024, the Integral Coach Factory awarded an Rs 867 crore contract to Bengaluru-based BEML to design and manufacture India’s first indigenous high-speed trains for the corridor. The trains are expected to operate at about 250 kilometers per hour, with a maximum speed of 280 kilometers per hour.
The infrastructure is being designed for speeds of up to 320 kilometers per hour, allowing for faster trainsets in the future. Each coach is estimated to cost about Rs 28 crore.
Officials are planning two service categories on the route. A faster service is expected to stop only at Surat and Vadodara, reducing travel time between Mumbai and Ahmedabad to just over two hours. An all-stop service is expected to complete the trip in under three hours.
Current conventional rail service between the two cities takes about seven hours. The Ahmedabad-Mumbai Central Vande Bharat Express completes the journey in about five-and-a-half hours, with a top operational speed of 130 kilometers per hour. (Source: IANS)
