Bullet train's Gujarat leg nears 80 per cent as the Mumbai end targets 2029

Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said in mid-July that close to 80 per cent of work on the Gujarat side of the Mumbai–Ahmedabad high-speed rail corridor is complete, and that the first services are expected on the Surat–Bilimora stretch next year. The 508-km corridor is slated to open in phases, with the full Mumbai leg targeted around 2029.

The sequencing runs outward from Gujarat: Vapi–Surat and Vapi–Ahmedabad follow the maiden stretch, while work continues toward Maharashtra — including the underground terminus at Bandra Kurla Complex, stations at Thane, Virar and Boisar, and the undersea tunnel beneath Thane creek.

The update came amid an unusual diplomatic wrinkle: New Delhi publicly rejected criticism from a former Japanese minister over the project's pace, maintaining that construction is accelerating. Japan is financing the bulk of the corridor through soft loans, and its Shinkansen platform remains the project's technology base.

For MMR property, the corridor's gravity sits at its southern end. A BKC terminus deepens the district's office and hospitality pull, while the Thane, Virar and Boisar station districts join the region's longest-horizon growth map — places where land markets tend to move years before the first train does.