India’s First Bullet Train Set for June-July Launch

India finalises the deal to acquire the first six Shinkansen (bullet) trains from Japan by the end of the month. The Indian Railways is ‘confident’ that the country’s first bullet train will start operating in June-July 2026 in Gujarat.

By August 15 of this year, the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) expects to post all contracts, including the one for purchasing trains and operational systems.

With the goal of connecting Ahmedabad (Gujarat) and Mumbai (Maharashtra), India is currently building its first bullet train project.

The project’s entire physical progress as of January 2024 was approximately 40%, according to officials, with Gujarat having made more progress (48.3%) than Maharashtra (22.5%).

There is remarkable progress in Maharashtra in recent months. The state administration has directed all district collectors to complete the handover of the land by this month’s end. We are working hard to see how we can push the physical progress to compensate for the time we lost because of the earlier Maharashtra government.

A railway ministry official told Times Of India.

The Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train route, which extends to 508 km, will feature services that stop at all stops as well as only a few stations. The all-stop trains will need an extra 45 minutes to arrive at their destination, while the limited-stop services will finish the trip in about two hours.

NHSRCL has also constructed six river crossings and completed over 100 km of the corridor’s elevated bridge section in the past year. There are twenty bridges on the Gujarat segment of the road, seven of which have been built.
Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw posted a video on X (formerly Twitter) showing completed viaducts across the Valsad, Navsari, Surat, Vadodara, and Anand districts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state.

Related: PM Modi Inaugurates India’s First Underwater Metro In Kolkata