
Railways to work on new bullet train corridors in North, East and South as proposed in BJP manifesto

Summary
- Government proposes to expand the network of bullet trains, taking high-speed train travel to all corners of the country and building ground for creating a golden quadrilateral network of these state-of-art modern fast trains in future.
With Golden quadrilateral of high speed train network in mind, Vaishnaw says Railways to work on new bullet train corridors in North, East and South as proposed in BJP manifesto
The government proposes to expand the coverage of high-speed trains, laying the ground for them to run on new routes along the lines of the golden quadrilateral highway network.
The golden quadrilateral is a diamond-shaped network of highways connecting northern, eastern, southern and western India.
The next expansion of high-speed trains includes plans to develop and manufacture these trains domestically in collaboration with the Japanese, who are also building the Mumbai-Ahmedabad rail network.
Domestic manufacturing of high-speed trains
In an interview, railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the Bharatiya Janata Party in its general election manifesto had promised three new corridors for high-speed trains, and that the government now planned to start work on this.
“When you start a complex project, there has to be a huge, steep learning curve. That learning curve has to be for the government organisation, for the industry, for designers, for people who are actually constructing it. So, after three years of starting construction on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad project, that learning curve is now already done and absorbed, and we are now confident of designing it."
“In the BJP manifesto, we had clearly mentioned that there would be three new corridors - one in the North, one in the East and one in the South. We will start working on it now. The new corridors may use indigenously designed bullet trains as we have the confidence of developing our own technology, probably in collaboration with Japan, who have one of the best technologies for bullet trains," the minister said.
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Bullet train refers to the Japanese Shinkansen trains that run at maximum speeds of 260-320 kmph. The fastest Indian trains such as Vande Bharat Express run at semi-high speeds of 160 kmph while a new variant running at 180 kmph is also being tested. The current speed limit of Vande Bharat trains is also based speed bearing capacity of Indian rail tracks.
National High Speed Rail Corporation Ltd, a joint venture between the Union government and state governments of Gujarat and Maharashtra, which is developing country’s first Mumbai- Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail (MAHSR) project, has also identified seven other HSR corridors.
Detailed project reports (DPRs) for four high-speed corridors (Delhi-Varanasi, Delhi-Ahmedabad, Nagpur-Mumbai, and Mumbai-Hyderabad) had been submitted till 2023-24. One DPR (Delhi-Amritsar) was submitted in July 2024, and the remaining two (Chennai-Mysore and Varanasi-Howrah) are expected to be submitted during 2024-25.
Approval for these corridors may be taken based on indigenous bulletin trains that may come up from concept to development stage in the next few years. As part of developing the corridors in the North, East and South, officials said the high-speed projects connecting Delhi with Varanasi and Ahmedabad, and Varanasi with Howrah may be taken up first.
The Mumbai-Hyderabad, Mumbai-Nagpur and Mumbai-Hyderabad and Chennai-Mysore may be taken up subsequently. This would complete a “golden quadrilateral" of high-speed trains, the officials said, making faster journeys possible between major metros.
Cost efficiency
The cost of the new projects is expected to be just half the ₹1.65 trillion that will have been spent for the 508-km Mumbai-Ahmedabad high speed train project. However, a lot of the savings would depend on the level of indigenization of the high speed rail technology.
Itmis understood that the Indian Railways’ Integrated Coach Factory in Chennai may also be asked to develop prototype of faster version of country’s semi-high Vande Bharat train that could be used for future corridors of high-speed train–with or without a joint venture with Japanese manufacturers.
While separately developing high-speed trains in the country using technology available globally, Indian Railways plan to scale up its own domestic high-speed train manufacturing by gradually increasing and testing higher speed versions of its Vande Bharat trains.
These trains currently have been tested for speeds of upto 180 km per hour under stage 2 of the programme. The Vande Bharat versions 3 and 4 would run at speeds of about 220kmph and 260kmph and finally moving further up to 280-300 kmph.
The new corridors for bullet trains would complement the services currently being offered by semi-high speed Vande Bharat trains that are currently running at speeds of upto 160 km an hour along various routes.
When asked whether new jogh-speed train corridors may be announced in the upcoming Union budget 2025-26, Vaishnaw said that it was the prerogative of the finance minister to present budget proposals to Parliament.
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Meanwhile, country’s first MAHSR bullet train project is moving at a swift pace. The total length of the project is 508 km (Gujarat: 352 km, Maharashtra: 156 km).There are 12 stations planned—at Mumbai, Thane, Virar, Boisar, Vapi, Bilimora, Surat, Bharuch, Vadodara, Anand/Nadiad, Ahmedabad, and Sabarmati.
Considering the highest level of safety and associated maintenance protocols, the high speed train project has been designed with the support of Japanese railways. It is customized for Indian requirements and climatic conditions.
All the land needed for the project—1389.5 hectares—has been acquired. Tenders have been awarded and viaduct construction is in full swing.
The MAHSR project is expected to begin operations in Gujarat by the end of 2027, and then be extended to Maharashtra. The entire section leading up to Mumbai is expected to open by the end of 2028.