Three months after Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav announced a 2026 target for the ambitious Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet train, the Centre on Tuesday yet again revised the deadline by one more year to 2027, for operationalising a section. The new public operations date for 2027 was announced by National High Speed Rail Corporation (NHSRCL) MD Satish Agnihotri in the presence of Satoshi Suzuki, Japan’s ambassador to India. Suzuki is on a full day progress review of the project to be presented to the higher authorities in Japan.

“We are moving in the direction of finishing the project by 2027, a target provided to us by the railway minister. However, as the Minister has asserted we will begin the trial run between Surat and Billimora stretch of 48 km,” Agnihotri said. Vaishnav in December 2021 had announced that people will have to wait for roughly 5 years before they can ride the first-ever high-speed bullet train in the country. Citing various hindrances and challenges in the way, Vaishnaw said that the project could reach its  culmination by 2026. The first deadline of the Bullet Train project was December 2023.

Japanese technology and funding is being used to build the high-speed rail corridor between two prime cities of Gujarat and Maharashtra for which the project has seen several deadlines and now the day to day progress is being reviewed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally.

“I observed the civil work of the bullet train project in progress in Gujarat. For this project, we are transferring technologies to the Indian equivalent. We’re also pleased with the project’s progress which I have to report to higher authorities in Japan,” Suzuki told The Pioneer during the site visit of the bullet train station of Surat in Antroli village and the location through which the train will traverse in Navsari district. 

In Gujarat, 99 per cent land acquisition is complete and civil works are in full swing while in Maharashtra, the project has got roughly 68.7 percent of the land acquired. In Dadra and Nagar Haveli (Union territory), 100% of land acquisition is almost complete.

The bullet train project between Mumbai and Ahmedabad is 508.17 kilometers long. There are around 12 proposed stations out of which eight are in Gujarat and four in Mumbai. In Gujarat, there are stations proposed in Vapi, Bilimora, Bharuch, Surat, Vadodara, Ahmedabad, Anand and Sabarmati. In Gujarat and Dadra and Nagar Haveli, 100% of Civil contracts for construction of the entire route i.e. 352 Kms have been awarded to Indian Contractors. For track works in Gujarat, work for 237 km has already been awarded and balance 115 km will be awarded soon.

On a query on the rolling stock comprising of bullet train coaches, Suzuki and Agnihotri committed that full trains will come from Japan which are being customised for Indian temperature, dust and weight. Suzuki said the governments of both sides later can work on transfer of technology for further high speed projects in India.

“We will get the E5 Shinkasen series trains which are currently operating in Japan. However, we are conducting studies to upgrade them to Indian conditions in terms of dust and temperature,” said Agnihotri giving details at a joint Press meet.

The E5 series are Japanese Shinkansen high-speed train types capable of running at a speed of 320 kmph.