India's bullet train: 'Maruti Moment' for Indian Railways and a glimpse into the future

MY FIRST BRUSH with the bullet train was in 1981 when a theatre in Aligarh screened a movie titled The Bullet Train. It was a Japanese film, originally named Shinkansen Daibakuha, dubbed into English. It featured a bomber who tells authorities that he has placed a bomb on a Shinkansen train travelling from Tokyo to Osaka—programmed to explode if the train’s speed drops below 80kmph.

The film was a tightly wound thriller in which authorities race against time to locate and deactivate the bomb. Despite being just 15 at the time, the speed and efficiency of the Shinkansen and the technology behind it left a lasting impression on me.

That childhood fascination with high-speed rail stayed with me as I grew up. During visits to Korea, China and France, I chose to travel on their high-speed trains—KoRail’s KTX, China’s Gaotie and France’s TGV—rather than fly. On each of those journeys, I found myself wondering when an Indian bullet train would hit the tracks.

Finally, in 2015, the Union government announced that an MoU for the construction of a bullet train project costing about Rs1 lakh crore had been signed between India and Japan. Criticism poured in almost immediately. Several economists called it too expensive and unnecessary. Retired railway officers claimed it would become a white elephant, arguing that fares would be prohibitive and that the money was better spent on modernising Indian Railways.

Unmindful of the criticism, the Modi government pressed ahead and established the NHSRCL (National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited), with 50 per cent equity held by the ministry of railways and 50 per cent split equally between Gujarat and Maharashtra. JICA, the Japan International Cooperation Agency, agreed to fund 80 per cent of the Rs1.08 lakh crore project cost, repayable over 50 years after a 15-year moratorium, at a nominal interest rate of 0.1 per cent per annum. The only condition was that the project be built on the Shinkansen platform.

Given the long history of friendship and cooperation between India and Japan, and the Shinkansen’s extraordinary safety record—not a single accident since 1964—it was a sound decision. It is difficult to imagine a high-speed rail system operating for more than 62 years without a single accident or fatality.

It should come as no surprise, then, that despite being over 60, I am waiting like a child for August 15, 2027, when the first bullet train is expected to roll from Surat and cover the 100km distance to Vapi in Gujarat in under 25 minutes. Full completion of the project is expected by December 2029. As of January 2026, 57.34 per cent of the required physical work had been completed at a cost of Rs88,395 crore.

When complete, this ambitious project will connect Sabarmati Station in Ahmedabad to BKC (Bandra Kurla Complex) in Mumbai—a distance of 508km. The train will cover 92 per cent of that distance over viaducts, with the remainder crossing 24 river bridges and a 21km tunnel that includes a 5km undersea section. Running at 320kmph, it will complete a journey that currently takes around seven hours in just over two hours. For the thousands of commuters who travel this route every day, it will be nothing short of a miracle.

Miracles and personal excitement aside, it must be said that for a country as large and populous as India, the bullet train project holds immense promise. It is an expensive undertaking, but one that promises significant benefits for the nation, the regional economy and the environment. Compared to road or air travel, Co2 emissions per lakh passenger-kilometres on the bullet train will be around 60 per cent lower—and the reduction in pollution intensity could reach 80 per cent if the electricity powering the system is sourced from hydel, solar or wind energy. Beyond the environmental gains, exposure to cutting-edge Japanese railway track and signalling technology will generate meaningful spin-offs, giving Indian railway engineers a window into the frontier of the field. This is, without doubt, a ‘Maruti moment’ for the 173-year-old Indian Railways.

India’s intercity transport demand is rising rapidly, and the share of road and air traffic in meeting that demand has grown steadily. Road transport relies heavily on personal vehicles—highly polluting and dependent on imported hydrocarbons—while also requiring large investment in land acquisition and highways. As population growth, urbanisation and rising incomes drive travel demand still higher, meeting it primarily through road and air will pose serious challenges to national energy security and greenhouse gas commitments.

Investment in a high-speed rail network addresses this directly. Academic research and global experience both establish that for intercity travel between 500km and 1,000km, high-speed rail delivers significant gains in time-saving, economic development and environmental outcomes. In Taiwan, China, Italy and Germany, the introduction of high-speed rail has catalysed large-scale, industry-led economic growth in cities along the corridor.

For perspective: while India will complete its first 508km high-speed corridor by December 2029, China has already built more than 22,000km of dedicated track, on which its new-generation Fuxing and Hexie trains have been running for two decades.

Need I say more?

The author is former DG, Railway Protection Force, and DG, Haryana Institute of Public Administration, Gurugram.