The Mumbai–Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Corridor (Mumbai–Ahmedabad HSR) is an under-construction high-speed rail line, which will connect Mumbai, Maharashtra, the financial hub of India, with Ahmedabad, the largest city in the state of Gujarat. When completed, it will be India's first high-speed rail line, with a design speed of , and the project will include a viaduct, which will be the longest bridge in the world.
The line is being developed by the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Indian Railways, the Ministry of Railways, and the Government of India. The line will use Shinkansen technology from Japan, including rolling stock, signalling and design standards – with technology transfer to support the Make in India programme.
After delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, construction commenced in February 2021, when the NHSRCL began to pour concrete to cast the corridor's first pillar.<ref name="construction_begins"></ref> An initial section between Surat and Bilimora in Gujarat, is planned to open for service on 15 August 2027, with the full line to open by 2029.
History Conception The Mumbai–Ahmedabad corridor, along with five other high-speed rail corridors, was reintroduced for a feasibility study in the 2009–2010 Rail Budget. Multiple such feasibility studies had been carried out earlier. A long high-speed rail corridor was proposed to run from to via Mumbai. The point at which this route would touch Mumbai was to be decided when the feasibility report was prepared. The pre-feasibility study for the Ahmedabad–Mumbai–Pune corridor was completed by a consortium of RITES, Italferr, and Systra. The top speed expected for the corridor was set up to . The proposed stations included Lonavala on the Mumbai–Pune section, and Surat, Bharuch, and Vadodara on the Mumbai–Ahmedabad section. It was proposed to have 32 services between Mumbai and Ahmedabad. Railway officials also proposed extending the corridor up to Bengaluru.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed in New Delhi on 14 February 2013, between the Ministry of Railways and the Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Français (SNCF), the French national railways, for technical cooperation in the field of railways. The parties agreed to carry out jointly an "operations and development" feasibility project on the Mumbai–Ahmedabad high-speed rail corridor. The project was funded by the SNCF with support from the French Ministry of Finance. In March 2013, the Railway Board decided to drop the Mumbai–Pune section and operate the high-speed rail service only between Mumbai and Ahmedabad. The Board decided, due to financial constraints, that the Ghat section between Pune and Mumbai would escalate the budget for the project. According to Vidyadhar A. Malegaonkar, Chief Public Relations Officer (PRO), Western Railway, "It's a Western Railway project and a very small portion of Maharashtra was being covered under it. Hence, the Maharashtra government was showing little interest in the project and was also reluctant to bear a financial burden. That is the reason why the Railway Board has decided against including the Pune–Mumbai portion in the high-speed corridor".
India and Japan signed a MoU to undertake a joint feasibility study of the Mumbai–Ahmedabad route in New Delhi in September 2013. This was in pursuance of the Joint Statement between the then-Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh, and the Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzō Abe, on 29 May 2013, which provided that the two sides would co-finance a joint feasibility study of the route. The objective of the joint study was to prepare a feasibility report of the system with a speed of . The cost of the study (¥500 million) was borne equally by India and Japan The study was scheduled to be completed within 18 months from its commencement, i.e., by July 2015. The study carried out traffic forecasting, and alignment surveys and undertook a comparative study of high-speed railway technology and systems.
Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the SNCF carried out studies on the project. JICA researched the technology, alignment, and traffic-related aspects, while SNCF worked on business projections. The feasibility study included an alignment survey concerning aspects such as land acquisition, environmental challenges, and the building of tunnels and bridges. It also suggested a financial model based on fare and non-fare box revenue.
Planning JICA officials visited Mumbai in January 2014 to discuss the details of the project and made selective site visits to the proposed route. On 21 January, following several meetings between JICA and Indian Railways officials, it was proposed to originate the corridor at the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) in Mumbai. The proposed route would begin from BKC, go right up to Thane on the Central Line, and then take a diversion on the Trans-Harbour route, which is on the Thane-Diva-Vasai-Virar stretch. The corridor would then switch over to the Western Line, before entering Gujarat and terminating at Ahmedabad. 12 stations were proposed on the route, of which 8 would have been in Gujarat. The intention behind taking the route via Thane is to keep the option open to link the corridor to Pune. The team also proposed other options for originating the line at either Bandra Terminus or Lokmanya Tilak Terminus, if the BKC option was unfeasible. Air-conditioned bullet trains are expected to operate in the corridor at speeds of , enabling commuters to traverse the distance in two hours. Currently, the fastest train operating in this sector is the Ahmedabad-Mumbai Vande Bharat Express, which takes 5 hours and 40 minutes to reach from Ahmedabad, running non-stop between these two cities at a maximum speed of .
The project held its first full-fledged meeting at the Railway Ministry in the first week of April 2014 to bring about a broad consensus on the project, especially between the governments of Maharashtra and Gujarat. The meeting was attended by representatives from the Maharashtra and Gujarat governments, the JICA, and the Railway Board officials. At the meeting, officials agreed to begin the line from BKC, and then take it to Thane and onward to Virar. The Maharashtra government was in favour of connecting the line with Belapur as well, to bring high-speed rail to Navi Mumbai. However, railway officials were opposed to the Belapur detour. Officials also discussed the need to ensure that the terminal at BKC would be connected to Line 3 of the Mumbai Metro, enabling commuters from South Mumbai to reach BKC.
In May 2014, the project was approved by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a meeting with the chairman of the High-Speed Rail Corporation of India. The feasibility study on the project was carried out by RITES, Italferr, and Systra in July 2015. On 20 July 2015, a joint Japanese-Indian survey team recommended a Shinkansen-style system for the Mumbai–Ahmedabad line, including the adoption of Automatic train control and dedicated tracks. JICA's report recommended constructing 63.3% of the route an embankment slightly above the ground, 28.3% on stilts, 5.8% underground, and 2.2% on bridges. Minister of State for Railways Rajen Gohain informed Parliament on 15 March 2017 that under a new plan, the entire corridor would be elevated except for the tracks that were proposed to be built underground.
The Ministry of Railways, based on the recommendation of the NITI Aayog, announced that Shinkansen technology would be adopted for the line, with technology transfer to support the Make in India programme. Japan would also provide staff training. In January 2016, the Ministry of Railways fast-tracked the project and set up a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) named the National High-Speed Rail Corporation Limited to build and operate the corridor. The company was registered in January 2016 in the name of Indian Railways. It was planned for the company to eventually be made into a joint venture, with equity participation of the Maharashtra and Gujarat governments. The public sector company is expected to build and also carry out train operations. The Ministry of Railways, the National High-Speed Rail Corporation (NHSRCL) and JICA signed a tripartite consultancy agreement in December 2016 to implement the project. The NHSRCL, was a new agency floated to implement the project. A joint venture between Japan International Consultants for Transportation Co (JIC), Nippon Koei Co, and Oriental Consultants Global Co. Ltd. was appointed as the general consultants for the project, and prepared design documents, bidding documents and technical standards and specifications for the project.
In late 2016, JICA awarded the detailed design study for the project to a consortium led by Japan International Consultants for Transportation (JIC), Nippon Koei India Pvt. Ltd, and Oriental Consultants. The study formally began in March 2017. JIC will forecast demand, set fares, and devise a train operation plan, handle preliminary design work for structures such as tunnels and bridges, and draw up an overall construction schedule. The Japan International Consultants for Transportation (JIC) Project Manager stated that "conditions surrounding the construction of a high-speed railway in India – such as weather, which is harsh there, and the quality and standards of materials – are considerably different from those in Japan. So we are now comparing and adjusting to these technical matters." Japanese public and private sector companies conducted training programs for railway staff in India. JIC stated that the local expertise in India gained from constructing and operating various rapid transit systems could be utilised for the high-speed rail project. Japan also provided training to Indian Railway Ministry officials, some of whom studied in government-sponsored programs at graduate schools in Japan. India and Japan signed an agreement to establish an HSR Training Institute in India by 2020 to train railway staff in high-speed rail operations.
The project received clearance from the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) in January 2019 to carry out construction in and around the wildlife areas. The Board required the NHSRCL to create safe passages for animals to pass through before beginning construction, and to erect noise barriers and fencing to prevent any disturbance to wildlife during construction.
The project received conditional clearance to cut down 53,467 mangrove trees, spread over an area of 13.36 hectares from the expert appraisal committee (EAC) on Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) projects of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests on 18 March 2019. The Ministry required the NHSRCL to obtain approval from the Bombay High Court and clearance from the Dahanu Taluka Environment Protection Authority. The NHSCRL is also required to conduct a study on the impact of the vibrations from the trains on the birds and mudflats in the Thane Creek Flamingo Sanctuary. The NHSRCL approached the Bombay High Court for approval on 8 April 2019. The NHSRCL announced in June 2019 that it had altered the proposed design of Thane station which would save 21,000 mangrove trees. As a result, only 32,044 mangroves are affected by the project.
Design The design for the bridges, viaducts and tunnels was made by engineers based in Delhi, Mumbai, and Japan. The corridor is long and traverses the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat, and the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli. The alignment comprises of viaducts (90.6% of route length), of tunnels (5.1%), of cut and fill (2.5%) and of bridges (1.8%). A tunnel connects Thane and Virar, of which will be undersea. The undersea tunnel was chosen to avoid damaging the thick vegetation present in the area. The corridor will begin at the underground station in the Bandra-Kurla Complex in Mumbai, and then traverse underground before emerging above ground at Thane.
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