Bullet train scorecard before Modi-Takaichi summit: E10 deal, 2027 partial opening, 8-year delay

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is set to arrive in India for her first official state visit. Takaichi will land in the national capital on Wednesday evening for her three-day official visit to India from July 1 to 3. The vital summit between Takaichi and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as per India's Ministry of External Affairs, offers a chance to "review and strengthen the full spectrum of bilateral cooperation as well as exchange views on regional and global issues of mutual interest."

India and Japan share a "Special Strategic and Global Partnership," characterised by deep economic investments, strategic collaboration in the Indo-Pacific, and cultural ties. The relationship between the two nations focuses on manufacturing, AI, supply chain resilience, and infrastructure.

A high-speed bullet train line happens to be one of the ambitious cooperative projects between India and Japan. The much-vaunted project, using Japanese "Shinkansen" technology, was launched in 2017 by PM Modi and his then-Japanese counterpartShinzo Abe. What's the scorecard? How far has the project come? WION Decodes.

Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail Project

Back in 2017, India and Japan agreed to a strategic partnership to introduce and co-manufacture the next-generation E10 Shinkansen bullet trains on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail corridor. The project at the time was planned to be completed by 2023.

The ambitious project to introduce India's first high-speed bullet train line has, however, been mired in cost overruns and delays.

Partial opening expected by 2027

Almost a decade after work began on the high-speed bullet train line, a section of the project between Mumbai, India's financial capital and Ahmedabad, the key city in Modi's home state of Gujarat, may become operational by 2027, say Indian railway ministry officials.

Talking to AFP, Dharmendra Tewari, Indian Railways' additional director general, said that "a considerable amount of work on the entire corridor has already been completed".

"The first section of the bullet train will be operational in 2027, between the cities of Surat and Vapi," he added. The two cities, Surat, the global diamond cutting centre, and Vapi, known for its chemical and manufacturing industries, are about 100 kilometres apart.

E10 deal, retired E5/E3 sets

The partial opening has been made possible by "Japan’s offer to introduce, in the early 2030s, the E10 series of the Shinkansen that runs on the Japanese signalling system," said MEA in a press release, dated 29 August, 2025.

Japan, as per reports, has agreed to bypass older E5/E3 models on the main route, choosing instead to debut the next-generation E10 in India concurrently with its rollout in Japan.

"The knowledge, skills and capabilities developed through the project are expected to support future high-speed rail corridors across the country," the government's plan reads.

The proposed network would feature an east-west corridor connecting New Delhi with Varanasi, one of Hinduism’s holiest cities, before extending to the strategically important city of Siliguri, the gateway linking India’s northeastern states with the rest of the country.

A second corridor would run roughly north to south from Ahmedabad to Mumbai, then stretch southeast across the country to connect key technology hubs, including Pune, Hyderabad, and Chennai. The Indian government describes these planned routes as “growth connectors.”