High-Speed Rail

India's first bullet train — the 508-km Mumbai–Ahmedabad corridor — was agreed with Japan in 2015 using Shinkansen technology, with its foundation stone laid in 2017. Designed for 320 km/h, it will cut a 7-hour trip to about two hours.

By 2025 over 300 km of viaduct, dozens of bridges and India's first undersea rail tunnel (beneath Thane Creek) were built, and Shinkansen trains began trials. The first section is targeted for 2027, the full line by 2029.

India's first bullet train, the 508-km Mumbai–Ahmedabad corridor, is being built with Japanese Shinkansen technology and largely Japanese (JICA) soft loans. It runs on dedicated, fully grade-separated elevated track — no crossings, no shared lines — allowing an operating speed of 320 km/h. The knowledge and skills from this first project are meant to seed a wider network of high-speed corridors India can build itself.

The flagship corridor is costly (about ₹1.08 lakh crore) and land acquisition pushed it years past its original date — the first section is now targeted for 2027. The real question is whether the economics justify extending high-speed rail to more corridors (Delhi–Varanasi, Chennai–Mysuru and others are on the drawing board), and how much of the technology India can localise to bring costs down.

The flagship corridor is costly (~₹1.08 lakh crore) and land acquisition took years — the next question is whether the economics work well enough to extend high-speed rail to more corridors.

508 km, 320 km/h, Shinkansen; ~₹1.08 lakh crore; first undersea rail tunnel; first section targeted 2027. Source: NHSRCL.