Bullet train in India: The Ministry of Railways plans to adopt a standard design for India’s bullet train network across seven new corridors. These corridors were announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Union Budget 2026-27. These are:
- Mumbai–Pune
- Pune-Hyderabad
- Hyderabad-Bengaluru
- Hyderabad-Chennai
- Chennai-Bengaluru
- Delhi-Varanasi
- Varanasi-Siliguri
Currently, the construction work on the 508-km-long Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train corridor is underway. The government has targeted to operationalise the priority section by August 2027. The train on the country’s first high-speed rail corridor will operate at a speed of 320 kmph, with a design speed of 350 kmph.
In a written statement in the Rajya Sabha on Friday, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that, based on the experience gained from the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project, the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) has started developing a standardised set of designs and technical specifications for future high-speed rail corridors, covering infrastructure such as viaducts, bridges, tunnels and stations.
He added that NHSRCL is developing design library under the Bharat High Speed Rail Programme and involved leading technical institute like IITs.“NHSRCL is simultaneously under process of developing specification for Train control system for speed upto 350 kmph with focus on Make in India (MII) suiting Indian environmental and social condition,” the Union Minister said.
Why India plans one standard design for future bullet train network
According to Vaishnaw, design standardisation is essential for safety, quality, cost efficiency and faster project execution. He said proven, modular designs eliminate the need to redesign infrastructure for each new corridor, enabling faster execution and ensuring consistent construction and maintenance standards across the high-speed rail network.“It also provides the foundation for developing indigenous HSR standards, reducing costs while strengthening India’s domestic engineering capability. This approach will help deliver world class high-speed rail infrastructure across the seven new corridors of about 4,000 km announced in the Union Budget 2026-27,” he added.
The Railway Minister said that post-budget announcement, work on updating project costs, finalising alignments and preparing Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) for the new bullet train corridors has begun.
“Being highly capital intensive, the decision to sanction any HSR Corridor/Project depends on many factors such as outcome of DPR, techno economic feasibility studies and availability of resources such as financing options etc,” he added
