Bullet train’s inaugural run to cover 100 km between Surat and Vapi in August 2027: Vaishnaw
New Delhi (PTI): India’s first bullet train will now cover a 100 km distance between Surat and Vapi in Gujarat during its inaugural run in August 2027, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Tuesday.
Earlier, Vaishnaw had said that the inaugural run would happen on a 50 km stretch between Surat and Billimore.
The country’s first 508-km long high-speed rail corridor is being constructed between Sabarmati (Ahmedabad) and Mumbai to operate a bullet train at 320 kmph, covering the entire distance in 2 hours and 17 minutes.
Its foundation stone was laid in 2017 and the entire project was initially proposed to be ready by December 2023. However, land acquisition and other issues delayed the ambitious project.
“The bullet train, in its inaugural run, will now cover 100 km between Surat and Vapi in August 2027. Earlier, the inaugural run was planned on a 50 km stretch between Surat and Billimora within the same deadline,” Vaishnaw told reporters at the Rail Bhawan here.
“The bullet train will cover the distance between Mumbai and Ahmedabad in 1 hour 58 minutes while stopping at four stations. However, if it stops at all 12 stations, the entire distance will be covered in 2 hours and 17 minutes,” he added.
Speaking about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to upcoming Surat station, Vaishnaw said that the PM was very happy with the pace of construction.
“PM Modi said that whatever we have learnt from the project must be used elsewhere, not only in Railways and other high speed projects, but in other different sectors as well. We have done one innovation after the other in this project,” Vaishnaw said.
“It is a complex project and the biggest challenge was its design,” He added, emphasising that the entire project will be operational by the end of 2029.
Despite Vaishnaw’s new commitment to the bullet train’s inaugural run, there remains a lack of clarity on the type of train which will operate on its first run.
While the Railway Ministry has awarded a contract to a Siemens-led consortium to install the signalling system on the corridor, industry experts say that this system might not support the Japanese Shinkansen bullet train.
The ministry has also asked Bharat Earth Movers Limited to indigenously develop a high speed train capable of running up to 250 kmph.
When asked whether the Japanese or the indigenously developed train would operate the inaugural run in August 2027,, Vaishnaw reiterated his commitment to the deadline, saying, “We will cover the first 100 km in August 2027.”
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NEET-UG: 2 more held, role of several NTA officers under scanner; CBI focussing on source of leak
New Delhi (PTI): The CBI has arrested two more persons in connection with the NEET (UG) paper-leak case, with the role of several officers of the National Testing Agency (NTA) and other organisations, who had access to the printing press where the papers were printed, coming under the scanner, officials said on Thursday.
The agency has arrested Dhananjay Lokhanda from Ahilyanagar and Manisha Waghmare from Pune and conducted searches at 14 locations across the country in the last 24 hours, they said.
The CBI is focussing on identifying the source of the leak that has caused massive disappointment to lakhs of aspirants eyeing a seat in undergraduate medical courses, which are allotted after the highly-competitive examination, the officials said.
According to the CBI probe so far, the involvement of public servants in the leak cannot be ruled out.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested three individuals from Jaipur -- Mangilal Biwal, Vikas Biwal and Dinesh Biwal -- along with Yash Yadav from Gurugram and Shubham Khairnar from Nashik.
Khairnar was in touch with Yadav and informed him in April that Mangilal Biwal was ready to pay Rs 10-12 lakh for arranging leaked NEET (UG) 2026 questions for his younger son.
Khairnar allegedly provided 500 to 600 questions from the leaked paper to Yadav, the officials said, adding that the questions could have helped score enough marks to get a seat in a reputed medical college.
Mangilal Biwal allegedly procured the paper from Yadav, who was known to his elder son Vikas Biwal from an NEET coaching in Rajasthan's Sikar. The deal between Mangilal Biwal and Yadav was for Rs 10 lakh, if 150 questions from the question bank matched with those in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) paper, the officials said.
Mangilal Biwal shared the paper with his son and further distributed it among relatives.
Yadav also told Vikas Biwal to find additional candidates for the questions to recover some of the money that he had spent on getting those, the officials said.
An analysis of digital devices has given the agency incriminating chats, leaked question papers and other digital evidence. The CBI will subject the devices to a forensic examination to get the deleted data, the officials said.
The federal agency has registered an FIR and formed teams to probe the alleged NEET (UG) paper leak that resulted in the cancellation of the exam held on May 3.
The NEET (UG) 2026 was conducted across 551 Indian cities and at 14 overseas centres. Nearly 23 lakh candidates had registered for the test, which was administered by the NTA at centres across the country.
According to the NTA, information regarding alleged malpractice was received on the evening of May 7, four days after the examination was held. The NTA said the inputs were escalated to central agencies the following morning for "independent verification and necessary action".
The Rajasthan Police's Special Operations Group (SOG) has claimed that a "guess paper" for chemistry, allegedly circulated among students ahead of the examination, had approximately 410 questions, including roughly 120 that appeared in the test.
