When will bullet train begin services in India Ashwini Vaishnaw shares update

Railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Saturday said that the first Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project is “progressing very well”, adding that the first corridor will integrate economies.

At an event hosted by NDTV, Vaishnaw said that the bullet train project needed to be seen from the perspective of integrating the economies. The minister said that in the first corridor, Mumbai, Thane, Vapi, Baroda, Surat, Anand and Ahmedabad will become a single economy.

“So you can have breakfast in Surat, go and complete your work in Mumbai, and come back with your family in the night,” the minister said at the event, adding that most of the places where bullet train projects went, they took 90% of the transportation share.

Last month, Vaishnaw had said that the first stretch of the bullet train from Bilimora to Surat will be ready by 2026. He said that on completion, trials on this route will be carried out using the E5 series of Shinkansen trains.

The minister had triggered a blast to build a shaft at Vikhroli to lower tunnel boring machines (TBM) for the construction of the 21-km underground tunnel, considered to be a technological marvel of India’s first bullet train project.

The shaft at the Vikhroli site of the National High Speed Rail Corridor is one among the four to be built for the entire 21-km-long underground stretch of the bullet train project.

The shaft-2 will be used to launch two TBMs — one towards the Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) station’s east end and the other towards Sawli in Navi Mumbai.

“Trains will zip through the tunnel at a maximum speed of up to 320 km. Constructing it without disturbing the tall buildings in the area is a challenge,” he was quoted by PTI as saying.

The project plans to deploy Japan’s Shinkansen Technology at an estimated cost of ₹1.10 lakh crore. Services for the project are expected to begin by 2026.