Winning Bizness Desk

Mumbai. Dreams of running a bullet train in the country are slowly moving towards realization as the project's work is going on full speed to run the train between Mumbai and Ahmedabad cities. Meanwhile, NHSRCL, the agency working on India's first Bullet Train Project, has floated a tender for the purchase of 24 E5 series Shinkansen train sets at a cost of about Rs 11,000 crore. The Government of India has set a target of running the country's first bullet train on the Ahmedabad-Mumbai corridor by 2027. NHSRCL has issued Invitation for Proposal (IFP) for Procurement. According to an official, interested companies will have to submit their bids by the end of October. Each Shinkansen train set will have 10 coaches, in which 690 passengers can sit. Slight changes will be made in the train set according to the extreme hot weather and Indian conditions. According to media reports, Japanese companies will also be given a chance in this tender. Some Japanese companies manufacture such train sets, including Hitachi Rail and Kawasaki Heavy Industries. At present, no disclosure has been made about the cost of these trains.

Three bridges constructed on 3 rivers in one month

The work on the bullet train project on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad corridor is progressing at a fast pace. In Gujarat, bridges were constructed on 3 rivers in a month. Officials of the National High Speed Rail Corridor (NHSRCL) say that out of 24 bridges, four have been constructed in the last 6 months. Notably, the cost of this ambitious bullet train project of the country is likely to be Rs 1.16 lakh crore. It is expected that by 2026, the bullet train may start operating in the first phase between Surat and Bilimora in South Gujarat. This project started in September 2017 with the Prime Minister of India and Japan present in the inaugural event.