India is negotiating with Japan as it looks to speed up work on localised designing, manufacture, and trial runs of high-speed trains, also called Bullet Trains. Indigenous versions of the train are also being considered. 

The plan going forward is to indigenise manufacture of these Bullet Trains and the associated signalling system, an official aware of the discussions told businessline. 

These new trains will run on standard gauge lines, and on dedicated bullet train corridors, as against the existing broad-gauge lines of the Indian Railway network. 

Two Japanese companies, Kawasaki and Hitachi - through a consortium- will work towards development, manufacture, and supply of high speed trains - with speeds of up to 300 kmph - along the Mumbai - Ahmedabad corridor. 

“Discussions on design to suit Indian conditions - such as extreme heat of up to 50 degree Celsius or more, higher load bearing capacities etc - are on. Talks are progressing fairly well. And our target is to get the trial runs happen on time, which is January 2026 or so,” the official said. 

Cost is also a factor that the Japanese consortium has been asked to keep in mind at the time of design. 

India’s BEML is said to develop a high-speed prototype with the average price of each rake being around ₹30 crore. 

“Work on the bullet train corridor in Maharashtra picked up pace after the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government took charge. Entire land acquisition is complete and over 320-kilometres of the physical infrastructure work is ready,” the official said adding that critical parts of the project like under-sea connectivity is being worked on. 

Half of the civil works for the existing bullet train corridor is complete. 

Indigenous Versions 

According to the official, indigenous high-speed trains are expected be built upon the existing Vande Bharat platform. 

The Railway Board has tasked Integral Coach Factory (ICF) to manufacture a bullet train that can top speeds of 280 kmph. 

The railway production unit then roped in BEML to make these trains for ₹866.87 crore. The total contract value includes design cost, one-time development cost, non-recurring charges, onetime cost towards Jigs, fixtures, tooling and testing facilities.

In addition to this, the signalling for these corridors will lead to development of new versions of Kavach. Kavach 4.0 - the latest version cleared for installation - is currently on the LTE platform. 

“India wants to become fully capable of making bullet trains that can touch speeds of up to 280 kilometres per hour (kmph) and average at 250 kmph operational speed,” the official said. 

The Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) manifesto had announced initiating feasibility studies for Bullet Train Corridors in North, South and East India.

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