NEW DELHI: A delay of over four years has pushed up the cost of the country’s first Bullet Train project by around 83% to Rs 1.98 lakh crore. The first leg of the project, between Surat and Bilimora, is scheduled to be inaugurated in Aug 2027, while the entire 508-km corridor is likely to be completed by Dec 2029.Responding to a question on the cost escalation for the Ahmedabad-Mumbai High Speed Rail Corridor project being implemented by NHRSCL, at a briefing on govt’s Pragati initiative, Railway Board CEO and chairman Satish Kumar said, “While the final sanction for the revised cost is yet to be taken, it’s around Rs 1.98 lakh crore. It’s still under revision… It will be finalised within a month or two.”Initially, the project was sanctioned at a cost of around Rs 1.1 lakh crore. The project has faced time and cost overruns due to different reasons, including delay in land acquisition, statutory clearances and finalisation of the rolling stock (trains).In a statement last week, railways said that overall physical progress in the project stood at 55.6% until Nov 30 and financial progress at 69.6%. Until Nov end, Rs 85,801 crore had been spent on the project. TOI has learnt that PM Narendra Modi, while reviewing work of railway ministry last month, had directed it to expedite completion of the project.Earlier on Friday, railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw virtually witnessed from Rail Bhawan the final breakthrough in a 1.5-km-long mountain tunnel, a part of the project, in Maharashtra’s Palghar district. “A big milestone has been achieved today (Friday). This achievement is the breakthrough of the mountain tunnel 5,” he said.In an official release, the ministry said that it is among the longest in Palghar district, being located between the Virar and Boisar bullet train stations. “It is the second tunnel breakthrough in Maharashtra, as the first 5-km-long underground tunnel between Thane and BKC was completed in Sept 2025,” it said. The project passing through Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli is designed to operate bullet trains at a speed of 320 kmph.The corridor will also be fit for operating the advanced Japanese E10 series Shinkansen trains as it is being designed to allow trains to run at 20 kmph higher speed. Once completed, the corridor will lead to an estimated reduction of nearly 95% in carbon dioxide emissions compared to road transport.
