ON THE FAST TRACK, FINALLY

With 100 per cent of the land acquisition done, India is all set to welcome its maiden bullet train, connecting Ahmedabad and Mumbai, and change the economic landscape along the entire stretch 

- Jumana Shah

There is a palpable air of excitement in central and southern Gujarat. On January 8, railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw took to X (formerly Twitter) to announce that the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) has completed 100 per cent land acquisition required to execute India’s first bullet train project between Ahmedabad and Mumbai. The 508-kilometre highspeed rail (HSR) corridor will traverse about 350 km in Gujarat, straight like an arrow through various villages and towns where extensive industrial and urban development is planned to take advantage of their rapid connectivity to India's commercial capital Mumbai. Besides land acquisition, NHSRCL has awarded all civil contracts in Gujarat and Maharashtra (where a 156-km corridor is coming up), a major step towards reducing the rail travel time between the two terminal hubs from the current 5-7 hours to just over two hours (see Progress Report).

Located in the heart of the Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar urban agglomeration, massive concourses are under construction at the Sabarmati Multimodal Transport Hub-home to the terminal bullet train station in Gujarat. The NHSRCL public relations officer in Ahmedabad draws up an oral vision of how these concourses will turn into busy streets in four years, with commuters hopping on and off the bullet train to seamlessly catch a regular train to onward destinations, or the Ahmedabad Metro connecting to state capital Gandhinagar, or the local bus rapid transit system. Lined with premium hotels, restaurants, office spaces and shopping plazas, the hub will rival any major airport in India. In Mumbai, the terminal HSR station is being constructed underground at the upscale Bandra Kurla Complex.