Indigenous bullet train: Experts welcome move but urge feasibility tests before scale-up

STATE TIMES NEWS

NEW DELHI: While welcoming the move to indigenously develop bullet trains capable of a maximum speed of 250 kmph, experts have also cautioned the Railway Ministry that scaling up production before testing the prototype could be risky.
Their cautionary note follows reports that the Ministry will soon award a tender for more trains.
In a push to the ‘Made-In-India’ initiatives, the Ministry in 2024 awarded a contract to Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML) to develop one pair of 250 kmph bullet trains by 2027.
The Ministry recently informed a parliamentary panel that the first pair of Bharat-made Bullet Trains, named B28, will operate on the 508-km-long Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail Corridor. Its first phase is expected to open in August 2027 on a 97-km stretch from Surat to Vapi.
The corridor is being constructed with financial assistance from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to operate Japanese-made 320 km/h bullet trains using Japanese signalling technology.
The Ministry defended its decisions before the parliamentary panel, stating that because obtaining Japanese-made trains presents challenges, it decided to develop indigenous trains with a 250 kmph speed capacity in the first phase, later improving them to 320 or 350 kmph.
Elaborating on the challenges, officials said that Japan offered more advanced E10 Shinkansen trains instead of their earlier proposal of E5 Shinkansen trains, which are currently no longer in production in Japan.
“As per the Japanese proposal, E10 Shinkansen trains are expected to be introduced in Japan by the early 2030s and thereafter, making necessary design changes to suit Indian climatic conditions, the same is expected to be offered for trial on the MAHSR corridor by 2032. This will delay the start of the whole project; hence, the Ministry decided to go for indigenous B28 trains,” a senior railway official said.
The Ministry further awarded a contract to Siemens in 2025 to install a signalling system for B28 trains.
Now, amid reports that the Ministry might award a tender to BEML to develop over a dozen more B28 trains, a section of infrastructure experts, while appreciating the significant completion of work at the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Corridor, red-flagged the decision to scale up production. “If you look at the history of manufacturing locomotives in India, you will find that we first imported locomotives, then got the technology transferred here and started our production,” said Subodh Jain, former Member, Engineering, Railway Board.
He added, “Till now, we have indigenously developed locomotives with a running capacity of 180 kmph. So, going for a 250 kmph train mandates a feasibility test of the prototype.”