Railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that they are assured of achieving the target of running the country’s first bullet train between Surat and Bilimora in Gujarat in 2026 as good progress has been made in this direction. He was in Surat to inspect the progress of the government’s ambitious Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train project.
There has been good progress in the construction of infrastructure for the bullet train between Ahmedabad and Mumbai, and the work is in progress at a swift-pace. Vaishnaw said to the reporters that they were keeping the target of running the first bullet train between Surat and Bilimora in 2026.
The project is aimed at running the bullet train between Ahmedabad and Mumbai on a High Speed Rail corridor at a speed of 320 kmph, covering a distance of 508 km and 12 stations. The train is expected to reduce the travel time between the two cities to about three hours from the current 6 hours.
The Japan International Cooperation Agency is funding 81% of project cost which is estimated at Rs 1.1 lakh crore. Vaishnaw said pillars for the bullet train project have been put up on 61 km of the route and work is in progress on around 150 km of the stretch. He further said they were working to fulfil the aspirations of 130 crore Indians. Also, the central government is working with the spirit of service and development of all under the direction of the prime minister of the country.