INDIA: Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has announced a planned opening date of August 2027 for the first section of the Mumbai – Ahmedabad high speed line.
Speaking on November 18, Vaishnaw said trains will begin running over an initial 100 km section between Ahmedabad and Vapi, representing approximately a fifth of the planned 508 km high speed corridor which is being developed in a partnership with Japanese backers and technology.
‘The bullet train will have its inaugural run from Ahmedabad to Vapi in August 2027’, Vaishnaw said, as he expanded on an earlier plan to launch operations over only 50 km of the route between Surat and Billimora. The government cited more rapid progress than previously anticipated as the reason behind the expansion of the starter section.
‘The full length from Ahmedabad to Mumbai will begin from 2029’, the minister added, noting that the end-to-end journey time would be 1 h 58 min.
The announcement came two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi reviewed the project’s progress during a site visit in Surat. Modi is due to meet his newly-elected Japanese counterpart Sanae Takaichi at the forthcoming G20 meeting in South Africa.
During his visit, Modi hinted that more of high speed rail projects may be rolled out, advising engineers in Surat to record their experiences for a ‘blue book’ to help future railway construction schemes.
The line between Ahmedabad (Sabarmati) and Mumbai is being designed for 320 km/h operation. A foundation stone was laid in 2017 and an initial timeline envisaged completion by the end of 2023. However, delays in land acquisition and a change of state government in Mahashtra saw the schedule subsequently pushed back.
As of November 17, 329 km of viaduct or elevated guideway had been completed, along with piers on 404 km of the route. Around 3 100 electrification masts have been installed, covering around 75 route-km of the main line viaduct. Excavation work on seven mountain tunnels in Palghar district is in progress, while construction of rolling stock depots at Surat and Ahmedabad is also underway, government officials reported.
