Bullet train: From vanity to vision

India's dream of high speed rail, though delayed by years, is inching closer to reality

- DHRUVAKSH SAHA

On a quiet day, it can take even the slickest of drivers half an hour to cross the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) area in Mumbai. On a busy day, the jam-packed roads of the city's up and coming commercial hub try the patience of every commuter - -even going by Mumbai's high tolerance levels for traffic snarls.

Between the construction of the BKC station of the Mumbai Metro Aqua Line, flyover projects in the vicinity, and rapid development of real estate in the area, there has been little respite for those who come here, wriggling their way through congestion, every day to earn a living.

Sequestered from all the din lies a 1-kilometre patch of land, where nearly 800 workers toil every day, away from the public commotion. This block of rubble and earth will eventually become the birthplace of high speed rail in India, better known as bullet train.

"Is this where the bullet train will start?" asks Satish, a local vendor who works a little distance from the excavated site of the station on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail (MAHSR) corridor. "If you hadn't told me, I would not even have known.

There hasn't been much disturbance overground because of the digging," he adds, apparently not feigning ignorance.

Locals say that the station's progress has been largely unobtrusive, an exception almost anywhere in India and especially in the financial capital famous for constant construction work.

While construction is not noticeable to passersby, this site under excavation transports 500 trucks every day to dump the burrowed earth to the designated area. The digging will extend to a depth of 32 metres, a ninth of which has been completed by a consortium of Megha Engineering & Infrastructures Ltd and Hindustan Construction Company Ltd.