The Indian Railways (IR) has set August 2027 as the target date to start Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Sustainability (Ramps) trials at speeds up to 250 km/h on the 100 km Surat-Vabi section of the high-speed line under construction between Mumbai and Ahmedabad.
According to Railway Minister Ashwani Vaishnao, revenue services will start in 2029 on the entire length of the 508-km Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed line, which will reduce the journey time to 1 hour and 58 minutes.
Although civil works are making progress and the National High Speed Rail Project Corporation (NHSRCL) has started awarding track laying contracts, disagreements between India and Japan, which provides 80% of the project financing, have led to delays and rising costs. In addition to India’s desire to order high-speed shinkansen trains for the new line, Japan insists on transmitting signals based on leaky feeder cables.
India says it can get rolling stock from European manufacturers at half the price set by Japan for 49 E10 Shinkansen series high-speed trains, 200 billion rupees (US$2.23 billion). IR has also accelerated local production of 1,435 mm trains with a speed of 250 km/h by state-owned Bharat Earth Movers (BEML).
Following the inspection of the high-speed terminal in Surat by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week, BEML has been instructed to begin deliveries by early 2027 with two prototype BEML trains scheduled to be used for ramp trials between Surat and Vabi, according to people familiar with the project. However, IRJ understands that Japan still expects to conduct tests using the E3 Series and E5 Shinkansen series high-speed trains that it donated to India.
IR also expressed a preference to purchase ETCS Level 2 signals for the new line on an open source basis, but kept its options open. In June, NHSRCL awarded a Rs41.4 billion contract to a joint venture involving DRA, Infracon and Siemens to supply signaling and communications systems.
Siemens has reportedly confirmed to IR that the signaling system is capable of incorporating a leaky feeder if IR chooses to adopt it, while the national operator is looking to procure interoperable, vendor-neutral on-board equipment for its 320km/h high-speed fleet.
However, IR’s intention to source equipment from European suppliers is likely to face resistance from Japan. In addition to requiring that some items be purchased from Japanese suppliers, the financing agreement also stipulates that items sourced elsewhere must be approved by Japan.
Contractors on the project are already facing difficulties as Japan has refused to approve equipment imported from Europe. One company reportedly incurred a loss of about Rs 500 million because Japan did not approve components imported from Germany, and refrained from further purchases from Europe.
For detailed data on high-speed projects around the world, subscribe to IRJ Pro.
