Vaishnaw visited Japan in Sep to sort out issues delaying bullet train project
The ambitious Japan-backed 508-km Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail Corridor, popularly known as the bullet train project, has among other issues faced escalating costs
Railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw visited Japan last month to sort out issues delaying the ambitious Japanese-backed 508-km Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail Corridor, popularly known as the bullet train project, that has among other issues faced escalating costs, two people aware of the matter said.
One of the people said two officials accompanied Vaishnaw on the three-day trip ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Tokyo later this year. A second person said the matter is sensitive as it may also impact the bilateral relations between Japan and India. He added the project cost has already gone up and is expected to rise further. “It is one of the major concerns,” the second person said. He added a major part of the spending has been on infrastructure building.
The Japan International Cooperation Agency is funding the construction of the high-speed rail line. HT last month reported the first Shinkansen E5 bullet train meant to ply at speeds up to 320 km per hour will take at least two years to arrive from Japan. Indian Railways was in talks with its Japanese counterparts to finalise the schedule for supplying the trains to India. Orders for the Shinkansen E5 trains were expected to be placed by the end of the year.
Modi announced the bullet train project years before the construction work began in 2020. The project spanning Maharashtra (155.76 km), Gujarat (384.04 km), and Dadra and Nagar Haveli (4.3 km) was scheduled to be completed by 2023. Protests against land acquisition delayed it.
In March, the National High-Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) overseeing the project said all civil contracts have been awarded in Gujarat and Maharashtra. The laying of the first reinforced concrete track bed for the MAHSR corridor track system as used in Japanese Shinkansen bullet trains started in Surat and Anand. This was the first time the J-slab ballastless track system was being used in India.
NHSRCL said it achieved a “remarkable milestone” with the completion of the first 350-metre-long and 12.6-wide mountain tunnel in Gujarat’s Valsad district in just 10 months.
The first steel bridge spanning 70 metres and weighing 673 MT has been built across National Highway 53 in Gujarat’s Surat. NHSRCL said in March the work for India’s first seven-kilometre undersea rail tunnel, which is part of a 21 km-long tunnel between BKC and Shilphata in Maharashtra, has commenced.
Vaishnaw in February announced that a 50km stretch between Surat to Bilimoria is expected to open in August 2026.