The first glimpse of India’s proposed high-speed train, planned from Ahmedabad to Mumbai, was unveiled at the Railway Ministry in New Delhi.
A picture of the high-speed train has been placed at Gate No. 4 of the Ministry of Railways building. The display gives a look at the streamlined design of the train, which is expected to be used in India’s first high-speed train service.
All about Mumbai Ahmedabad bullet train
The high-speed rail corridor from Mumbai to Ahmedabad will cover a distance of 508 km and connect 12 stations, including Mumbai (Bandra Kurla Complex), Thane, Virar, Boisar, Vapi, Bilimora, Surat, Bharuch, Vadodara, Anand/Nadiad, Ahmedabad and Sabarmati.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for this project $1.1 lakh crore project in September 2017 at Sabarmati in Ahmedabad.
The pass includes eight mountain tunnels. Among them are seven tunnels in Maharashtra with a total length of 6.05 km, while one tunnel in Gujarat will extend 350 metres.
According to the latest update, India’s largest cutter head of a railway tunnel boring machine (TBM) has been lowered at Vikhroli in Mumbai as part of the work on the bullet train project.
The cutting head, with a diameter of 13.6 meters and weighing approximately 350 tons, represents the final stage of the basic assembly of the TBM’s main shield. The machine will be used to dig a portion of the underground tunnel along the high-speed rail route, the National High-Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) said.
Two drilling rigs, each weighing more than 3,000 tonnes, are currently being assembled to build a 16-km section of the 21-km-long Mumbai tunnel. According to the statement, this section also includes a 7 km long subsea tunnel under Thane Creek, which will become India’s first subsea railway tunnel.
When will operations start?
Earlier last year, Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnao had said that the country’s first bullet train service would start operations from Ahmedabad to Vapi section by August 2027, covering a distance of 100 km.
“The bullet train will start its inaugural journey from Ahmedabad to Vapi in August 2027. With this, it will cover a distance of 100 km,” Vaishnao said. “The entire length from Ahmedabad to Mumbai will start from 2029,” he explained.
He also said that the train will complete the 508 km journey between Ahmedabad and Mumbai in 1 hour and 58 minutes.
With input from agencies
