Daijiworld Media Network - Mumbai
Mumbai, Jun 2: The Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet Train project has achieved its third mountain tunnel breakthrough in Maharashtra within five months, marking another milestone in the construction of India's first high-speed rail corridor.
The latest breakthrough took place in Dahanu taluka of Palghar district, Maharashtra.
Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced the development on X, stating that the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet Train project had achieved another significant milestone with the third mountain tunnel breakthrough in Maharashtra.
The achievement comes as construction gathers momentum across the 508-km Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail corridor, nearly nine years after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe laid the foundation stone in Ahmedabad in September 2017.
Officials said viaducts are progressing across Maharashtra and Gujarat, undersea tunnel work has commenced near Mumbai, and station construction is advancing steadily. India's first indigenously developed high-speed trainset is also expected to be ready by 2027.
Among the latest achievements is the completion of a viaduct launch over the Kalupur flyover and a Railway Over Bridge on the Sabarmati-Mumbai main line of Western Railway in Ahmedabad district.
According to an official release, the viaduct runs parallel to the existing railway line and the launch over the flyover was completed using the Span-by-Span method. The structure includes a 45-metre span over the flyover, 19 bridge segments and weighs approximately 1,200 metric tonnes.
The Kalupur flyover is one of Ahmedabad's busiest transport links, connecting Shahibaug, Asarwa and Kalupur.
Officials said the bullet train corridor passes through 31 crossings in Ahmedabad district, including railway crossings, road flyovers, canals and the Sabarmati River. Work on 23 of these crossings has already been completed.
The project is being developed with technical and financial support from Japan using the Shinkansen high-speed rail system. The corridor will pass through Maharashtra, Gujarat and the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.
The route will feature 12 stations: Mumbai, Thane, Virar, Boisar, Vapi, Bilimora, Surat, Bharuch, Vadodara, Anand, Ahmedabad and Sabarmati.
The project is being implemented by National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited.
Designed for speeds of up to 320 kmph, the fastest service is expected to complete the Mumbai-Ahmedabad journey in just over two hours with stops only at Surat and Vadodara. At present, conventional trains take around seven hours on the route, while the Vande Bharat Express completes the journey in approximately five-and-a-half hours.
Railway officials said the corridor was selected because it connects some of India's most important commercial and industrial hubs. The project is also expected to facilitate technology transfer under the government's "Make in India" initiative.
Japan is funding about 81 per cent of the project through a soft loan carrying an interest rate of 0.1 per cent, repayable over 50 years with a long moratorium period.