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Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav said that the country’s first bullet train will run in the 100 KM corridor between Surat and Vapi. It will be started in August 2027 and the entire project will be commissioned in 2029.
New Delhi. Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav said on Tuesday that India’s first bullet train will be inaugurated in August 2027 and in the initial phase it will run on a 100 km stretch between Surat and Vapi in Gujarat. Earlier, Vaishnav had said that in the initial phase the Bullet Train will run on a 50 km stretch between Surat and Bilimora. The country’s first 508 km long high-speed rail corridor is being built between Sabarmati (Ahmedabad) and Mumbai. On which the bullet train will run at a speed of 320 kilometers per hour and this train will complete its journey in two hours and 17 minutes.
Bullet train to be inaugurated in August 2027
Railway Minister Vaishnav told reporters at Rail Bhawan here that ‘the bullet train will be inaugurated in August 2027 and in the initial phase it will run on a 100 km stretch between Surat and Vapi. Earlier, in the initial phase it was planned to open 50 km stretch between Surat and Bilimora within the same time frame. He said that ‘Bullet train will cover the distance between Mumbai and Ahmedabad in one hour 58 minutes, stopping at four stations. However, if it stops at all the 12 stations, it will cover the entire journey in two hours and 17 minutes.
Bullet train a complex project
Regarding Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to Surat station, Vaishnav said that the Prime Minister was satisfied with the pace of construction. Vaishnav said that ‘Prime Minister Modi said that whatever we have learned from this project should be used not only in railways and other high-speed projects, but also in various other sectors. We have made innovations one after another in this project. He said, ‘This is a complex project and the biggest challenge is its design.’ He emphasized that the entire project will be operational by the end of 2029.
Work going on on indigenous bullet train
Although the Railway Ministry has awarded the contract to a Siemens-led joint venture to install the signaling system on the corridor, industry experts say the system may not be suitable for the Japanese Shinkansen bullet trains. The ministry has also asked ‘Bharat Earth Movers Limited’ to indigenously develop a high-speed train capable of running at a speed of 250 kilometers per hour.
