A significant engineering milestone was achieved this week in Mumbai as India’s first high-speed rail corridor—connecting Mumbai and Ahmedabad—recorded its first tunnel breakthrough along the 21-kilometre underground stretch between Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) and Shilphata. This marks a major leap forward for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet Train project, reaffirming its steady progress despite complex geological and logistical challenges.
Officials associated with the high-speed rail project confirmed the successful excavation of a 2.7-kilometre tunnel segment—achieved using a Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM). This section forms a part of the longer BKC–Shilphata underground route, which includes a 7-kilometre stretch beneath Thane Creek, presenting one of the most technically demanding phases of the corridor. Out of the total 21 kilometres of tunnelled alignment, 16 kilometres are being excavated using TBMs, while the remaining section—from Shilphata to Ghansoli—is being executed using the New Austrian Tunnelling Method (NATM). In a strategic move to accelerate the NATM portion, engineers have constructed an intermediate access tunnel, enabling parallel tunnelling from both Shilphata and Ghansoli ends. So far, approximately 1.6 kilometres have been excavated from the Shilphata side, with further progress anticipated to pick up pace in the coming months.
According to infrastructure experts involved in the project, this first breakthrough is critical to maintaining the construction timeline for the ₹1.08 lakh crore Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet Train corridor. Once operational, the high-speed rail will reduce travel time between the two cities from over six hours to just around two, redefining inter-city mobility along India’s western economic corridor. Sustainability analysts have also noted that this mode of high-speed rail travel is expected to significantly curb long-term carbon emissions by shifting a large volume of regional passenger traffic from highways and aviation to electric rail—aligning with India’s net-zero goals.
With tunnelling now underway across multiple zones, this breakthrough under Mumbai’s urban heart underscores both the scale and the ambition of India’s evolving infrastructure vision.
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