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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Women's quota bill would have ensured defeat of democracy, Constitution: Aaditya Thackeray
Mumbai (PTI): Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray on Saturday said that the passage of the women's quota bill would have ensured a "total defeat of democracy", alleging that the legislation, linked with a delimitation exercise, was a political tool designed to reduce the voice of states.
Thackeray, in a post on X, claimed that the Bill would have amended the Constitution for the political means of the ruling regime to increase seats, reduce the voice of many states and enable the gerrymandering of constituencies to ensure unfair victories.
"The very amendment that would have ensured the total defeat of democracy and the Constitution in India stands rejected by the unity of the Opposition MPs," he wrote.
The legislation should have been called "Delimitation to ensure unfair victory Bill", the former minister said, adding that there was a genuine need to enable 33 per cent reservation for women in the current number of seats.
"Now, it is up to the government to ensure that it is implemented in the 543 seats of the Lok Sabha for the 2029 elections and all elections across India, if that is the real intent of the government," he wrote.
A Constitution Amendment Bill to implement reservation for women in legislatures in 2029 and increase the number of Lok Sabha seats was defeated on Friday in the Lower House.
While 298 members voted in support of the Bill, 230 MPs voted against it. Out of 528 members who voted, the Bill required 352 votes for a two-thirds majority.
According to the Constitution Amendment Bill, Lok Sabha seats were to be increased to a maximum of 850 from the current 543 to "operationalise" the women's reservation law before the 2029 parliamentary polls, following a delimitation exercise based on the 2011 Census.
