Progress Of Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet Train Project: 30 Per Cent Of Construction Work Is Complete

According to official estimates, the country's first Bullet Train has been in the works for more than five years and has made only 30.15 per cent overall physical progress as of 31 March.

The first trial run of India's Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail project (MAHSR), is scheduled for August 2026 between Surat and Bilimora (63 km).

According to the National High-Speed Rail Corporation Ltd. (NHSRCL), the Bullet Train project is estimated to cost roughly Rs 108,000 crore.

The MAHSR consists of 92 per cent of high-speed elevated railway tracks via viaducts (460 km total) and bridges (9.22 km), tunnels (25.87 km), and embankments/cutting (12.9 km).

Work Progress
On the Gujarat side, work is slightly more than one-third completed (35.23 per cent), but on the Maharashtra side, it is a dismal 19.65 per cent accomplished.

So far, 56.34 per cent of the civil work on the project has been completed, and pile construction has been completed on 272.89 kilometres.

While pier construction on 170.56 km has been completed, 45.40 km of girders have been launched thus far, according to the Ministry of Railways (MoR).

The entire 508-kilometre-long Mumbai-Ahmedabad route, which includes 156 kilometres in Maharashtra and 352 km in Gujarat, is unlikely to begin full operations until 2027.

India’s First Undersea Tunnel

The rail route between Mumbai and Thane on the northern side will be a key attraction, with a considerable portion featuring Thane Creek Flamingo Sanctuary (TCFS), which was recognised as a Ramsar Site in August 2022.

The MAHSR corridor will run through a seven-kilometre undersea tunnel in this sector to prevent disturbing the flamingos at the TCFS location and other species in the adjacent rich mangroves.

It will be India's first undersea tunnel and the country's longest rail transport corridor, with a single tube measuring 13.2 metres in diameter.

Widely considered a key project highlight, the 21 km tunnel will be constructed at Thane Creek between underground stations at Bandra-Kurla Complex and Shilphata in Maharashtra, which are around 35 kilometres apart.

This tunnel will be about 25-65 metres deep from the ground level and the deepest construction point will be 114 metres below the Parsik Hill near Shilphata.

Building an underground tunnel, however, has escalated the cost by 100 times. The initial cost of the C2 package which was pegged at Rs 100 crore has now increased to Rs 10,000 crore.

India’s First Bullet Train Project

Presently, MAHSAR is the only sanctioned high-speed rail project in the country.

The High-Speed Rail operating at 320 kmph will traverse along west India’s landscape, covering a 508.17 km distance between Mumbai and Ahmedabad in just about two hours. This will save time compared to current travel time between the two terminal stations by about nine hours (by bus) or six hours (by conventional railways).

It will cover 155.76 km in Maharashtra, 4.3 km in the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and 348.04 km in Gujarat, with 12 stations en route.

The government is yet to determine a final deadline for the entire project.