Railway secures all clearances for 508-km bullet train project

The Indian Railways has got all the requisite wildlife, forestry and coastal regulation zone clearances in Gujarat and Maharashtra for the 508-km long Ahmedabad-Mumbai High-Speed Rail Corridor. Railway Board Chairman and CEO, V.K. Yadav, informed that, of the 1,651 utilities, 1,070 have already been shifted for the High-Speed Train Corridor and the railways has also got 67% of the land required for the Bullet train project. In Gujarat, 825 hectares out of 956 hectares have been acquired, which is 86%. While in Maharashtra, 97 hectares, out of the 432 hectares of land has been acquired, which is only 22% of the total land required and seven-hectare out of eight-hectare land has been acquired in Dadra and Nagar Haveli. Railways has already awarded contracts worth ₹32,000 crore in Gujarat for the ambitious project covering 325 km length of the viaduct and five stations. The initial deadline to complete the ambitious project was December 2023. The bullet trains are expected to run at 350 km per hour covering the 508-km stretch in about two hours. In comparison, trains currently take over seven hours to travel the distance, whereas flights take about an hour.