Long Wait For India's Dream Bullet Train Project To Flag Off

“When the project commenced on September 14, 2017, the Ministry of Railway had set the deadline to complete the whole corridor by December 2023 saying, all-out efforts will be made to complete it by 15th August 2022”. It was supposed to coincide with the 75th Independence Day celebration,” a railway official, associated with the project, said.    

The Railway Ministry has officially stopped announcing a full construction schedule for the whole project. Instead, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw recently said that its first phase, a 50-km stretch between Surat and Billimora, will be ready by August 2026.

“Both the Ministry as well as the National High-Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL), which has the mandate to finance, construct, maintain, and manage the bullet train project, don’t want to commit to any new deadline primarily due to delays in land acquisition issues,” an NHSRCL official said.  

He added, "Though the land acquisition is 100 per cent complete now, all civil contracts haven’t been awarded yet.” 

As far as the operationalisation of the first phase is concerned, sources in the NHSRCL note that the basic skeleton structure is not ready on the 50-km stretch, however, the construction work is in full swing.

Besides this 50-km stretch, out of a total of 508 km, piers have been raised in at least a 300 km stretch, girders have been placed up to 175 km, and laying of rail track work is supposed to be started on the 35 km structure anytime soon.

What Makes It The Most Challenging Project?

The bullet train will facilitate this 508 km journey between Mumbai and Sabarmati via Ahmedabad in 2 hours and 58 minutes with a maximum 320 km per hour speed with stoppages at 9 other stations such as Thane, Virar, Boisar, Vapi, Bilimora, Surat, Bharuch, Vadodara and Anand.  

Some 156 km of the project runs through Maharashtra while the remaining 352 km area falls in Gujarat and Dadra & Nagar Haveli. Out of 12 stations, 8 are in Gujarat and 4 in Maharashtra.

Experts say that as the train will pass through viaducts, bridges, mountain tunnels, and underground as well as undersea areas, keeping its alignment straight and controlling the vibrations due to high speed makes it a highly complex and technically difficult infrastructure project.

Out of 508 km of total length, viaducts cover 465 km, bridges make up 9.82 km, underground areas add up to 21 km including 7 km of undersea stretch, mountain tunnels have 5.22 km and the remaining 6.75 km goes to station areas, cuts etc.  

“It’s not like making tunnels for roads or other railway networks. Here, alignment is everything. It was a huge achievement when we completed mining work in our first 350-meter-long tunnel in the Valsad district of Gujarat in October 2023. It is our first tunnel which has been completely mined and constructed keeping its alignment straight as per our specifications. There is not a millimetre of deviation. There are seven such mountain tunnels including this one,” a project expert said.  

He added that even the complete route length between the two stations has been kept straightly aligned and the NHSRCL has to tackle all the challenges that come their way.  

Another senior official from NHSRCL said that an undersea rail tunnel for high-speed rail is going to be another ‘first of its kind’ in the country for which digging work just started about a couple of months ago.

“The undersea road tunnel, a part of Mumbai’s coastal road project which was opened to the public in February this year, had different challenges and undoubtedly it is an engineering marvel but the undersea rail tunnel for the Bullet train is going to be the next milestone,” he said.

According to NHSRCL, it has selected one of the best global technologies available for high-speed rail projects, ie, the Japanese Shinkansen technology which “offers one of the highest safety levels in the world.”

Reports say there have been zero passenger fatalities since the first Shinkansen train started in Japan in 1964. Japan also has the world’s longest 54 km long underground rail tunnel with a significant portion crossing under the sea.    

A Unique Track System Is The Need

The NHSRCL is using a track system which is known as the J-Slab track system under which on the viaduct, the RC track bed is laid. “On this track bed, a cement asphalt mortar is placed followed by a track slab. The track slab supports the rail and the rail fastener,” a construction official from NHSRCL said.

He added, “When girders are placed on piers, it makes a viaduct. To speed up the construction of the viaduct, the full-span girder Launching method is being used besides the segmental launching method. We are using indigenous equipment and machinery such as Straddle Carrier, Girder Launcher and transporter.”   

The Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail Corridor had an estimated cost of Rs 1,08,000 cr (US$ 17 million) and according to reports, this has escalated to Rs 1.65 lakh crore now.  

It is being executed with the Official Development Assistance (ODA) Loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). Out of the total cost, while 81 per cent will be funded by the Government of Japan through JICA, the remaining 19 per cent will be borne by the Indian Government.

According to NHSRCL, “According to the equity structure of the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), (which is NHSRCL), 50 per cent stake is held by the Government of India, through the Ministry of Railways, and 25 per cent each by the Govt of Maharashtra and the Government of Gujarat.”   

The Bullet train’s 320 kmph speed is more than double the speed of passenger trains running on the rail network in the country. Normally, mail or express trains run at a maximum of 130 kmph due to tracks unsuitable to support a semi-high-speed transport system. Even Vande Bharat trains, launched in 2019 with an operative speed of 160 kmph, run at a maximum of 130 kmph on all routes except Delhi-Agra.

Besides speed leading to efficiency in travel mode, the Railway Ministry lists numerous benefits of the project such as economic stimulation, new job creation, increase in mobility, environment-friendly travel, and promotion of the tourism sector.

Besides all the benefits and innovative initiatives, this project has faced severe criticism since its inception as a section of experts believe that its costs outweigh its benefits.

According to them, India’s rail network is in very poor shape and spending on rail network safety, which carries about 2 crore passengers daily, is far more important than investing on grandiose projects which will benefit just over 35,000 passengers daily.