New Delhi: India’s first bullet train project crossed a key construction milestone this week with the successful breakthrough of Mountain Tunnel 5 in Maharashtra’s Palghar district, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced.
The development marks a major step forward for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Corridor, which includes a network of mountain and underground tunnels.
The 508-km corridor has about 27.4 km of tunnels, including nearly 21 km underground. Mountain Tunnel 5, measuring around 1.48 km, is the first and longest of the seven mountain tunnels planned in Maharashtra.
The project also features one mountain tunnel in Gujarat and an undersea tunnel.
Vaishnaw said the bullet train line will have 12 stations, with Bandra Kurla Complex and Sabarmati as the terminal stations in Mumbai and Gujarat, respectively.
Construction work is also progressing on viaducts, which account for nearly 85 per cent of the corridor, to minimise land acquisition.
Once operational, the high-speed rail service is expected to reduce travel time between Mumbai and Ahmedabad to about two hours, significantly boosting connectivity and economic activity along the route.