India's First Bullet Train Line Has Pier Work Done Over 455 km of Its 508 km Route and Is Targeting August 2027 for Its First Section

The Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail line, India’s first bullet train route, had pier work finished over 455 km of its 508 km length and viaduct built over 365 km in the August 2026 progress report of its builder, the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL), as Swarajya reported on 17 September 2026. A viaduct is an elevated rail bridge. The Press Information Bureau (PIB), the government’s press arm, says the first passenger service is expected in August 2027.

The line has 12 stations from Mumbai to Sabarmati in Ahmedabad, and it is being built with Japanese Shinkansen technology.

What the August 2026 report counts

According to Swarajya’s account of the NHSRCL report, 299 km of noise barriers are up and about 222 km of reinforced concrete track bed is done. Track slabs are laid over 98 km, and more than 9,100 overhead electrification masts, the poles that carry the power wires, stand across 203 km. Seventeen river bridges and 15 steel bridges are complete, four mountain tunnels have been excavated, and 5 km of tunnel dug by the New Austrian Tunnelling Method is finished.

The Ministry of Railways gave the Lok Sabha, the lower house of Parliament, 430 km of piers, 174 km of track bed and 153 km of masts on 1 April 2026. Set beside the August report, track bed and masts each grew by roughly 50 km between the two documents.

For the project as a whole, the Ministry’s year-end review for 2025 records physical progress of 55.63 percent as of 30 November 2025. A PIB release of 11 February 2026 puts spending at ₹86,939 crore to 31 December 2025. All 1,389.5 hectares of land have been acquired, and all 1,651 utilities have been shifted, the Ministry says.

The route runs 352 km through Gujarat and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and 156 km through Maharashtra. About 465 km of it is on viaducts, PIB said in November 2025.

Built to Shinkansen standards

PIB’s June 2026 explainer gives the line a design speed of 350 km/h and an operating speed of 320 km/h, with Mumbai to Ahmedabad in about 1 hour 58 minutes. The highest design speed on the existing network is around 180 km/h, on semi-high-speed trains such as the Vande Bharat Express.

The track is J-Slab ballastless track, a Japanese Shinkansen design that puts the rails on concrete slabs in place of a bed of crushed stone, and PIB says it is being laid in India for the first time. The overhead system is 2×25 kV with Shinkansen-style cantilevers, and more than 20,000 masts are planned. An early earthquake detection system of 28 seismometers will sense the first seismic waves and cut the power so that trains brake to a stop.

Construction methods are new to India too. PIB says the full-span launching method puts whole 40-metre box girders, each about 1,000 tonnes, in place within 16 hours. About 1,000 Indian engineers and skilled workers have been trained in Japanese methods, and track work is carried out under their supervision, according to the February 2026 PIB release.

Tunnelling beneath Thane Creek

The Maharashtra section includes a 21 km tunnel, with India’s first undersea rail tunnel under Thane Creek. PIB gives the undersea stretch as about 7 km. Of the 21 km, 5 km is cut by the New Austrian Tunnelling Method and 16 km by tunnel boring machines. Both tracks share one tube 13.1 metres across, and the 13.6 metre cutterhead is the largest used on an Indian railway project.

Swarajya reports that the first machine began boring on 5 July 2026 from Vikhroli towards the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC), and the second on 18 July from Sawli, at Ghansoli, towards Vikhroli. The BKC bullet train station will be underground, 32.5 metres below the surface by PIB’s July 2025 account. Its excavation was about 91 percent complete in February 2026.

Another large Indian railway engineering job, the Chenab arch bridge on the Kashmir line, opened in June 2025.

The first section, in Gujarat

The Ministry told the Lok Sabha on 1 April 2026 that on the Surat to Vapi section, 97 km long, all civil works including river bridges are complete and 80 percent of the track bed is laid. The member’s question had asked whether the first train would cover 100 km from Surat to Vapi rather than the 50 km from Surat to Bilimora announced earlier. The written reply describes the 97 km section without saying which stretch opens first.

Other official statements name the stretch in two ways. PIB reported in November 2025 that the Surat to Bilimora section, about 47 km, had its civil works and track bed fully complete. Akashvani, the public broadcaster, reported on 2 January 2026 that Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the first train is likely on 15 August 2027, from Surat to Bilimora and then Vapi to Surat. IANS reported on 12 July 2026 the same phasing, followed by Vapi to Ahmedabad, Ahmedabad to Thane and Ahmedabad to Mumbai. PIB’s 3 July 2026 backgrounder says the first section to open is Surat to Vapi.

In February 2024 the minister had targeted July or August 2026 for the first section. The Ministry’s replies say that delays in land acquisition in Maharashtra affected the project until 2021, and that acquisition picked up in 2022. Its written replies give no date for the whole corridor, saying exact timelines can be set after civil, track, electrical, signalling and trainset work is done.

At the Ahmedabad end, Sabarmati is planned as a hub linking the bullet train, metro, bus rapid transit and railway networks, in the city that will host the 2030 Commonwealth Games.

The Japanese loan, as the Ministry states it

The Ministry of Railways’ release of 13 December 2015 said Japan had offered assistance of over ₹79,000 crore as a loan for 50 years, with a moratorium of 15 years (a stretch before repayments begin), at 0.1 percent interest. It put the project at ₹97,636 crore, to be built in seven years, with Shinkansen technology adopted and cooperation tied to transfer of technology and Make in India.

On 15 December 2017 a Rajya Sabha reply by the then Minister of State for Railways, Rajen Gohain, recorded that Japan would provide 81 percent of the project cost at 0.1 percent over 50 years. The loan comes in tranches. The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) announced on 26 July 2022 the signing of a loan of up to 100 billion yen for the third, listing 0.1 percent a year, 50 years and a 15-year grace period.

The sanctioned cost in the Ministry’s reply of 31 July 2024 is ₹1,08,000 crore (₹1.08 lakh crore). Swarajya reported on 4 March 2026, citing unnamed officials, that a revised estimate of about ₹1.98 lakh crore was being prepared for the Union Cabinet and that no fresh Japanese loan was planned for the increase. The Ministry’s published replies to April 2026 do not give a revised figure.

What the line is meant to start

The Ministry says the experience is meant to seed a domestic industry. The Integral Coach Factory in Chennai, with Bharat Earth Movers Limited, is designing high-speed train sets for 280 km/h, according to the February 2026 PIB release. A high-speed rail training institute is planned at Vadodara.

The Union Budget 2026-27 announced seven more high-speed corridors, covering nearly 4,000 km and expected to attract about ₹16 lakh crore. Vaishnaw gave Mumbai to Pune as 48 minutes and Chennai to Bengaluru as 1 hour 13 minutes.