Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Saturday said that the 50-km stretch of India's first bullet train project between Surat and Bilimora in Gujarat will open in 2027, and the entire section between Mumbai and Ahmedabad will be operational by 2029.
"Overall progress of the bullet train project is very good. The first 50-km section of the project between Surat and Bilimora will be open by 2027. By 2028, the Thane-Ahmedabad section will be commissioned, and by 2029, the entire Mumbai-Ahmedabad section will open," he told reporters at Surat.
The Minister reviewed India's first bullet train project and visited the under-construction Surat bullet train station and inspected track installation works.
Once the bullet train becomes operational, it will cover the distance between Mumbai and Ahmedabad in just two hours and seven minutes, he said, adding that the speed potential of the main line is 320 kmph and 80 kmph for the loop line.
Insisting that there are special safety features on the track so that the train is very stable he said even if there is a very heavy gust of wind or a sudden earthquake.
Vaishnaw said the entire heavy work for Surat station is completed, and finishing and utility works are progressing faster along with the track link.
Vaishnaw said the ambitious bullet train project will turn economies of all major cities from Mumbai to Ahmedabad into one and spur growth like Japan when the first bullet train was introduced.
The Minister said that in BJP's manifesto, the party has promised three more corridors in the north, one in the east, and one in the south. Mumbai-Ahmedabad is in the western part of the country. “We will have four bullet train corridors as we go forward," Vaishnaw said.
The bullet train project between Mumbai and Ahmedabad was sanctioned in December 2015 at an estimated cost of Rs 108,000 crore with 80 per cent Japanese funding as an easy loan. The foundation stone for the project was laid in September 2017.
Earlier the project was planned for completion by 2023 but it has witnessed multiple extensions due to delay in land acquisition mostly in Maharashtra.