India will sign a contract to buy the first six E5 series Shinkansen trains, also known as bullet trains, from Japan by the end of March. Given the progress of the Bullet Train project in the country, Railways is confident of running the first train in Gujarat from June to July 2026. Sources said the National High-Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) will place all the bids, including the purchase of trains and operating systems, by August 15 this year.
The 508 km long bullet train corridor between Mumbai and Ahmedabad will have ‘all stop’ and ‘limited stop’ services. There are trains with only a few stops that can travel from Mumbai to Ahmedabad in just two hours. The second service will take approximately two hours and forty-five minutes.
The cost of one E5 series Shinkansen train will be 400 crore as per estimate.
Bullet Train Progress
Officials said the total physical expansion of the project will be about 40% by January. Out of this, more progress has been made in Gujarat (48.3%). Even in Maharashtra, the achievement is around 22 percent. He said that in the last year, more than 100 km of the viaduct has been completed in the project. Six river bridges have been built in the last one year. Out of 20 bridges in Gujarat, 7 have been completed.
Maharashtra Progress
A railway ministry official said that major progress has been made in Maharashtra in recent months. The state administration has ordered all the district collectors to complete the work of handing over the land by the end of this month. The project received statutory approval. “We are working hard to see how we can make up for the time lost due to the previous Maharashtra government to bring forward material progress,” a source said.
