Bharat Bullet Train: Corridor 62% Complete, First Substation Nearly Ready, B28 Trainset Clears Squeeze Tests
The Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train corridor is 62.16% complete, its first traction substation at Bilimora is nearly ready, and India's B28 trainset is clearing structural tests ahead of a 2027 debut section.
Highlights
- The Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train corridor has reached 62.16% physical progress, according to NHSRCL.
- The first of 14 traction substations, at Bilimora in Gujarat, is nearing completion — the power backbone for the 508-km line.
- India’s indigenous B28 trainset is in the final stages of squeeze testing at BEML in Bengaluru; the first train is expected to be ready in the first quarter of 2027.
- The Railways targets the 97-km Surat-Vapi stretch for August 2027, with the full corridor scheduled for December 2029.
India’s first bullet train project is moving from civil works to systems. The 508-km Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail Corridor has reached 62.16% physical progress, according to the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL), with the first section between Surat and Vapi slated to launch in August 2027 and the entire corridor scheduled for completion by December 2029, HelloRail reported on 30 October 2026. Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw marked the moment on 1 November by sharing a progress video of the corridor and visiting the plant building India’s own trainset for it — infrastructure delivery of the kind that also frames this week’s other big systems story, GST 2.0’s move into its compliance phase.
Power: the first substation nears completion
A high-speed line is only as good as its electricity. NHSRCL is developing 14 traction substations across Maharashtra and Gujarat to feed the corridor’s 2 × 25 kV traction power supply system, and the first of them, at Bilimora in Navsari district, is nearing completion, spread over approximately 18,000 square metres and drawing power from Gujarat Energy Transmission Corporation’s 220 kV Ambetha grid substation. "The first traction substation is nearing completion at Bilimora in Navsari district, Gujarat… with equipment installation, testing and commissioning activities progressing at the substation," NHSRCL said, as reported on 1 November 2026.
The B28: India’s own trainset passes its squeeze test
The trains themselves are also taking shape — in Bengaluru, not Japan. The indigenous B28 trainset being built by state-owned BEML is in the final stages of a squeeze test, in which the car body is subjected to controlled compressive and tensile forces to assess its structural strength, Business Standard reported on 1 November 2026. "After the squeeze test, the propulsion systems will be inserted and it will undergo a climate test with temperatures as high as 50 degrees and as low as negative, along with rain and dusty environments," Vaishnaw said in Bengaluru. The B28 has a design speed of 280 kmph and an operational speed of about 249 kmph, with eight cars and capacity for 557 passengers; the Railways says the first train is likely to be ready by the first quarter of 2027, the Indian Express reported on 1 November 2026.
The hard engineering underneath
The corridor’s most complex stretch remains the 21-km tunnel in Maharashtra, including a 7-km section beneath Thane Creek — India’s first undersea rail tunnel — being built 25 to 55 metres below ground and sea level, NDTV reported on 31 October 2026. The line will have 12 stations and, with Japanese Shinkansen trainsets, is designed for operations up to 320 kmph, cutting the Mumbai-Ahmedabad journey to about two hours and seven minutes. Programmes on this scale are also, indirectly, a jobs story — the engineering pipeline behind them is the same one thousands of aspirants are entering through routes like JEE Main 2027, whose registration window is now open.
What to watch
Three dates now define the project: the B28’s readiness in early 2027, trial runs from the Surat depot, and the August 2027 opening target for the Surat-Vapi stretch. The 62.16% figure is the Railways’ own measure, and the remaining work — track, signalling, stations and the undersea tunnel — is the slowest kind. But with power infrastructure switching on and an Indian-built trainset clearing structural tests, the corridor has entered the phase where progress becomes visible as hardware, not just concrete.
