India's First Indigenous Bullet Train, the B28, Takes Shape: 280 km/h Test Speed and 557 Passengers
India's Ministry of Railways said on November 1 that the B28, the country's first indigenously developed bullet train, is under construction at BEML's plant in Bengaluru, where Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw inspected the manufacturing progress and prototype engineering models that day. The trainset is being built for the 508-kilometre Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail corridor, India's first high-speed line.
According to the ministry, the B28 is about 202 metres long and formed of eight coaches, four of them motor cars and four trailers. Seven coaches are standard class in a three-by-two seating layout and one is an executive coach in a two-by-two layout, giving a capacity of about 557 passengers, including two spaces for passengers with reduced mobility; two eight-coach sets can also be coupled into a 16-coach train. Its maximum test speed is 280 km/h and its planned operating speed is 249 km/h.
The B28 is being developed by a BEML-Medha Servo Drives consortium under a contract awarded by the Integral Coach Factory in Chennai in October 2024. Two prototype trainsets are being built, and the bodyshell is undergoing structural safety assessments including squeeze tests. The first prototype is expected to roll out early next year.
Under the ministry's timetable, trial runs are to begin in the first quarter of 2027 on the roughly 100-kilometre Surat-Vapi section of the corridor, with commercial operations on that stretch targeted for August 2027. The Gujarat section is expected to be completed by December 2027 and the full corridor by December 2030. Once open, the line is expected to cut the Mumbai-Ahmedabad journey from about six and a half hours to about one hour and 58 minutes.
Source: Ministry of Railways, India
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：印度孟买至艾哈迈达巴德高速铁路走廊在建高架线路（资料图）。照片 CC0，作者 Kshitij08，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The elevated viaduct of India's Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail corridor under construction (file photo). CC0, by Kshitij08, via Wikimedia Commons.
