New Delhi, May 18 (IANS) A framed image displayed at Gate 4 of the Ministry of Railways building in New Delhi offered a glimpse of what India’s bullet train future could look like — a sleek, aerodynamic train with a rounded nose, gliding over an elevated viaduct through lush green terrain.

While the image appeared symbolic, possibly a digital rendering, it also reflected the government’s renewed confidence that the long-delayed Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail (MAHSR) project is finally gathering pace.

Nearly nine years after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe laid the foundation stone for the project in September 2017, the country’s most ambitious rail infrastructure venture has crossed several critical construction milestones, even as questions remain over costs, timelines and eventual execution.

The latest official progress update came from Union railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, who shared details of the corridor’s construction status earlier this month. According to the minister, 349 km of viaduct structure has already been completed along the 508-km route. The viaduct, which carries nearly 90 per cent of the alignment above ground level, is one of the most critical and expensive components of the project.

In addition, 443 km of piers — the concrete support pillars for the elevated corridor — have been erected. Work on the electrical infrastructure is also advancing rapidly, with more than 7,700 overhead equipment masts installed across 179 km of the alignment.

The National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL), the agency implementing the project, has also accelerated track and civil works. More than 5.7 lakh noise barriers have been installed across 288 km of the route to minimise sound impact in populated areas, while track bed construction has progressed over 374 track-km, equivalent to nearly 187 route-km.

One of the most challenging portions of the project lies in Maharashtra, where construction had slowed for years because of land acquisition hurdles and political opposition. Progress there has now picked up significantly. Officials say 5 km of the crucial 21-km underground tunnel between Mumbai’s Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) and Shilphata has already been excavated.

The tunnel section gained fresh attention last week when the NHSRCL announced that the cutter head of India’s largest tunnel boring machine had been lowered into a launch shaft at Vikhroli in Mumbai. Weighing around 350 tonnes and measuring 13.6 metres in diameter, the massive machine will be deployed to dig the project’s most technically demanding stretch.

The underground segment includes India’s first undersea rail tunnel, with approximately seven kilometres of tunnelling planned beneath Thane Creek. Railway minister Vaishnaw described the TBM as the largest cutter head ever used in any railway project in the country.

The Mumbai-Ahmedabad corridor will eventually connect 12 stations spread across Maharashtra and Gujarat, with a small stretch passing through the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli. The stations planned are Mumbai, Thane, Virar and Boisar in Maharashtra, and Vapi, Bilimora, Surat, Bharuch, Vadodara, Anand/Nadiad, Ahmedabad and Sabarmati in Gujarat.

According to NHSRCL officials, station construction in Gujarat is at an advanced stage. Contracts for station plazas at Surat, Bilimora, Vapi, Bharuch, Anand and Vadodara have already been awarded. In Maharashtra, work has begun on all three elevated stations, while foundation work is underway at the underground BKC terminal in Mumbai.

The project has also moved beyond its dependence on imported Japanese rolling stock. While the corridor is based on Japan’s Shinkansen technology, the trains themselves are now being developed domestically.

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. These trains are expected to run at an operational speed of around 250 kmph, with a maximum speed of 280 kmph.

The infrastructure, however, is being designed for speeds of up to 320 kmph, leaving room for faster trainsets in the future. Each coach is estimated to cost approximately Rs 28 crore.

Officials are planning two categories of services on the route. The faster service is expected to stop only at Surat and Vadodara and could reduce travel time between Mumbai and Ahmedabad to just over two hours. The all-stop service is expected to complete the journey in under three hours.

At present, conventional rail services between the two cities take roughly seven hours, while the Ahmedabad-Mumbai Central Vande Bharat Express completes the journey in about five-and-a-half hours with a top operational speed of 130 kmph.

–IANS

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