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Bullet Trains
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday visited the under-construction bullet train station in Gujarat's Surat to review the progress of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail Corridor (MAHSR). The Prime Minister landed at the Surat airport in the morning and reached the Antroli area, where a bullet train station is under construction. He interacted with officials and reviewed the work. MAHSR, one of India's most ambitious infrastructure projects, spans approximately 508 km, covering 352 km in Gujarat and Dadra and Nagar Haveli, and 156 km in Maharashtra. Later in the day, PM Modi will visit Dediapada town in the tribal-dominated Narmada district, where he will address a gathering to mark the birth anniversary of tribal icon Birsa Munda. He will also inaugurate and lay the foundation stone for infrastructure and development projects costing more than Rs 9,700 crore. Before addressing the gathering, the prime minister will offer prayers at the temple of Pandori Mata, the clan deity
A breakthrough was achieved for a 4.88 km-long tunnel between Shilphata and Ghansoli for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project on Saturday morning in the presence of Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. Calling it a "landmark achievement", Vaishnaw, who initiated the breakthrough of the tunnel, said that the first phase of the high-speed corridor on the Surat-Bilimora section will start in December 2027. Talking to reporters in Ghansoli near Mumbai, the minister said that the bullet train will be the "transport for the middle class", and the fares will be "reasonable". He said that the Google Maps app shows the journey time between Mumbai and Ahmedabad as nine hours, but people will be able to cover the distance in two hours and seven minutes on the bullet train. The first phase of the bullet train project will be first launched on the Surat-Bilimora section in 2027, covering Thane in 2028 and the Bandra Kurla Complex in 2029, Vaishnaw said. "The services are designed such that
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Sunday said India's first bullet train service will commence very soon, and it will cut the travel time between Mumbai and Ahmedabad to two hours and seven minutes. The Union minister was at Bhavnagar terminus from where he virtually flagged off the Ayodhya Express, Rewa-Pune Express, and Jabalpur-Raipur Express, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh Chief Ministers Mohan Yadav and Vishnu Deo Sai respectively. "The first bullet train from Mumbai to Ahmedabad will start very soon, and the work on the project is going on at a fast pace. When it starts running, the journey from Mumbai to Ahmedabad will take only two hours and seven minutes," Vaishnaw said. India's first bullet train between Mumbai and Ahmedabad will span 508 kilometres. It will start from the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) area in Mumbai, and connect to Gujarat's Vapi, Surat, Anand, Vadodara and Ahmedabad, running at a high speed of 320 km per hour. Addressing a gathering here, the Union ...
The Trump administration has revoked federal funding for California's high-speed rail project, intensifying uncertainty about how the state will make good on its long-delayed promise of building a bullet train to shuttle riders between San Francisco and Los Angeles. The US Transportation Department announced it was pulling back USD 4 billion in funding for the project, weeks after signalling it would do so. Overall, a little less than a quarter of the project's funding has come from the federal government. The rest has come from the state, mainly through a voter-approved bond and money from its cap-and-trade programme. President Donald Trump and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy both have slammed the project as a "train to nowhere". "The Railroad we were promised still does not exist, and never will," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "This project was Severely Overpriced, Overregulated, and NEVER DELIVERED." The loss marks the latest blow to California by the Trump administration, wh
With the launch of a 40 metre-long girder near Surat in Gujarat, 300 km of viaducts for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project has been completed, the National High Speed Rail Corporation (NHSRCL) said on Tuesday. According to the NHSRCL, of the 300 km of the superstructure, 257.4 km is constructed through the Full Span Launching Method (FSLM), including 14 river bridges, 37.8 km through Span by Span (SBS), 0.9 km of steel bridges (10 spans ranging from 60 to 130 m in 7 bridges), 1.2 km PSC bridges (20 spans ranging from 40 to 80 metres in 5 bridges) and 2.7 km in station building. Besides the viaducts, 383 km of pier work, 401 km of foundation and 326 km of girder casting has been completed for the 508-km bullet train project, the agency said. FSLM has significantly accelerated construction, as full-span girder erection is up to 10 times faster than conventional segmental methods, NHSRCL said. Each full-span box girder weighs 970 metric tonnes, and segmental girders are used ..
The time when the first bullet train will run in India is not far, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday as he underlined the "rising" demand for high-speed trains from across the country and the sector's "historic transformation" under his government. Launching a slew of rail projects, including inauguration of the Jammu division, Modi said the Railways had undergone a historic transformation in the past decade. It has led to a change in India's image and a boost in people's morale, he said in a video address, with the chief ministers of Telangana, Odisha, and Jammu and Kashmir, besides other dignitaries, joining the programme from their respective states. People increasingly want to spend less time covering long distances, leading to a rise in the demand for high-speed trains, the prime minister said. More than 136 Vande Bharat trains are running on over 50 routes, he said, referring to a recent trial run in which the train clocked a speed of 180 kilometres per hour. "The t
The orders for three tunnel boring machines to carry out about 21 km under sea tunneling for the Bullet Train project have been placed, the government informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply on Friday while updating the status of infrastructure projects in Maharashtra. Construction works on the flagship high speed bullet train project have gathered momentum in Maharashtra. Now 100% land acquisition has been completed. Works of bridges, aqueducts etc. have been taken up, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said. Meanwhile, all preparatory works required for the working of TBMs (tunnel boring machines) such as construction of shafts etc. have also been taken up, he added. Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut wanted to know whether the government has reduced funding for new railway lines in Maharashtra in recent years, the critical rail projects which have been delayed due to reduction in funding and the steps taken by the government to mitigate potential delays in railway projects to ensu
The National High Speed Rail Corporation (NHSRCL) on Monday invited bids from eligible Indian and Japanese companies for the design, supply and construction of tracks for the Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train project in Maharashtra. NHSRCL, in a release, said the bullet train track in Maharashtra will be 314 km long as the route alignment is 157 km between the train station at Bandra Kurla Complex and Zaroli village on the state's border with Gujarat. The tender is for the design, supply and construction of tracks and track-related works, including testing and commissioning for the double-line high-speed railway, it said. Technical bids are scheduled to be opened on February 3, 2025. "This will be the last track construction contract for the bullet train project," the release stated, adding that it will also include track works for four stations and a rolling stock depot in Thane. The work on track construction has already commenced in Gujarat, where the contracts were awarded to Indi
The National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) on Friday said it has received more than 35,000 MT of rails and four sets of track construction machinery for the Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train project. The process of flash-butt welding of rails to form 200-meter-long panels has started on the viaduct as track construction is underway near Surat and Anand cities in Gujarat, the NHSRCL said in a release. The 508 km high-speed corridor is being constructed between Ahmedabad and Mumbai. The bullet train project will have a J-Slab track system based on the Japanese Shinkansen track system. This is the first time the system will be used in India, it said. The process of track installation is mechanised with cutting-edge machinery, specially designed and manufactured as per Japanese specifications, it was stated. As per the release, the NHSRCL has received more than 35,000 MT of rails and four sets of track construction machinery for the project. The fleet of machines includes